Best PlacesBradley Beach, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bradley Beach, 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.
Bradley Beach ranks 15,403rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bradley Beach
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.
Bradley Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bradley Beach ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
Where Bradley Beach ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,493 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 6% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bradley Beach
A household needs to earn about $266,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bradley Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $104,901, 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 Bradley Beach's effective rate of 0.93%, 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 Bradley Beach
Bradley Beach 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 Bradley Beach.
Who works in Bradley Beach, and how
Work in Bradley Beach centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 61%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Bradley Beach
Bradley Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 1 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Bradley Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bradley Beach, month by month
Bradley Beach sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 26° |
| April | 64° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 70° | 59° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Bradley Beach
John F Kennedy International sits about 33 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 31.0 million passengers in 2025, with 249 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Bradley Beach
Schools across Bradley Beach average a D, better than 6% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Avon Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Bradley Beach Elementary SchoolD · 18% proficient
- Midtown Community Elementary SchoolD− · 11% proficient
Top middle schools
- Neptune Middle SchoolD · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Neptune High SchoolD · 19% proficient
- Asbury Park High SchoolD− · 11% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bradley Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bradley Beach 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 Bradley Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bradley Beach
Is Bradley Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bradley Beach ranks 15,403rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, cell coverage, and biking, and lowest on an overheated housing market and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bradley Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,000,683. The overall cost of living runs about 51% above the national average. Set against a $104,901 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Bradley Beach safe?
Bradley Beach is safer than 23% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $289 per resident a year.
Compare Bradley Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bradley Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bradley Beach 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.
Bradley Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bradley Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bradley Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bradley Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bradley Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bradley Beach 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.