Best PlacesArden, DE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Arden, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Arden ranks 4,603rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Arden
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Arden's strengths and weaknesses
Where Arden ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
Where Arden ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,109 a month, better than only 16% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Arden
A household needs to earn about $117,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Arden home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $108,345; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Arden's effective rate of 0.71%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Arden
Arden runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Arden.
Who works in Arden, and how
Work in Arden centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 71%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Arden
The coast is about 33 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Arden, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Arden, month by month
Arden sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 72° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Arden
The nearest airport, New Castle, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 14 miles away.
The best schools in and around Arden
Schools across Arden average a D+, better than 10% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Forwood Elementary SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Talley Middle SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Mount Pleasant High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- Brandywine High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Arden school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Arden measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Arden against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Arden
Is Arden a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Arden ranks 4,603rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, transit, and health care access, and lowest on noise and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Arden expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $454,300. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $108,345 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Arden safe?
Arden is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $280 per resident a year.
Compare Arden with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Arden. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Arden represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Arden detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Arden: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Arden: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Arden: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Arden: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Arden detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.