Best PlacesBelleville, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Belleville, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Belleville ranks 1,314th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Belleville
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.
Belleville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Belleville ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of cities
- TransitBetter than 97% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 83% of cities
Where Belleville ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 4% of cities
- School gradeD+, better than only 8% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 13% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Belleville
A household needs to earn about $131,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Belleville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $89,816, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Belleville's effective rate of 2.46%, 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 Belleville
Belleville runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Belleville.
Who works in Belleville, and how
Work in Belleville centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Belleville
Belleville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 71% of cities. The coast is about 25 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Belleville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Belleville, month by month
Belleville sees roughly 57 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 26° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Belleville
Newark Liberty International sits about 7 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 23.5 million passengers in 2025, with 242 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Belleville
Schools across Belleville average a D+, better than 8% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Belleville Ps10C · 30% proficient
- Belleville Ps9C− · 27% proficient
- Belleville Ps5D+ · 22% proficient
Top middle schools
- Belleville Middle SchoolD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Bard Early College High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Belleville High SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Belleville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Belleville 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 Belleville against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Belleville suits
Common questions about living in Belleville
Is Belleville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Belleville ranks 1,314th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on big-city access, walkability, and transit, and lowest on property taxes and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Belleville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $409,826. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $89,816 median income, cost of living beats 29% of cities.
Is Belleville safe?
Belleville is safer than 26% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $265 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Belleville?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 26. That works out to about 57 pleasant days a year, more than 4% of cities.
Is Belleville good for families?
Schools beat 8% of cities, crime safety beats 26%, and childcare runs $1,400 a month.
Compare Belleville with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Belleville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Belleville 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.
Belleville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Belleville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Belleville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Belleville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Belleville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Belleville 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.