Best PlacesBeacon Falls, CT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Beacon Falls, 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.
Beacon Falls ranks 4,086th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Beacon Falls
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.
Beacon Falls' strengths and weaknesses
Where Beacon Falls ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
Where Beacon Falls ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,583 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Beacon Falls
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Beacon Falls home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $106,913; 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 Beacon Falls' effective rate of 1.63%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Beacon Falls
Beacon Falls 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 Beacon Falls.
Who works in Beacon Falls, and how
Work in Beacon Falls centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Beacon Falls
The coast is about 23 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Beacon Falls, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Beacon Falls, month by month
Beacon Falls sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Beacon Falls
The nearest airport, Tweed/New Haven, is about 15 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 40 miles away.
The best schools in and around Beacon Falls
Schools across Beacon Falls average a B+, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Great Oak Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Laurel Ledge SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Long River Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Oxford Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Oxford High SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Woodland Regional High SchoolB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Beacon Falls school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Beacon Falls 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 Beacon Falls against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Beacon Falls
Is Beacon Falls a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Beacon Falls ranks 4,086th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, few empty homes, and big-city access, and lowest on childcare costs and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Beacon Falls expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $372,471. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $106,913 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Beacon Falls safe?
Yes, Beacon Falls is safer than 88% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $148 per resident a year.
Compare Beacon Falls with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Beacon Falls. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Beacon Falls 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.
Beacon Falls detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Beacon Falls: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Beacon Falls: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Beacon Falls: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Beacon Falls: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Beacon Falls 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.