Best PlacesBrookside, DE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brookside, 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.
Brookside ranks 17,133rd 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 Brookside
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.
Brookside's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brookside ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
Where Brookside ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,109 a month, better than only 16% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brookside
A household needs to earn about $74,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brookside home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,669, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Brookside'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, 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 Brookside
Brookside runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Brookside.
Who works in Brookside, and how
Work in Brookside centers on retail trade and finance & insurance. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Brookside
Brookside has more parkland per resident than 84% of towns. The coast is about 23 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Brookside and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brookside, month by month
Brookside 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 Brookside
The nearest airport, New Castle, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 29 miles away.
The best schools in and around Brookside
Schools across Brookside average a D, better than 9% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Gallaher (robert S.) Elementary SchoolD+ · 23% proficient
- Brookside Elementary SchoolD · 17% proficient
- Smith (jennie E.) Elementary SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Shue-medill Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Kirk (george V.) Middle SchoolD− · 14% proficient
- Gauger-cobbs Middle SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Top high schools
- Christiana High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Newark High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brookside school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brookside 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 Brookside against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brookside
Is Brookside a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brookside ranks 17,133rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, transit, and state infrastructure, 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 Brookside expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $286,153. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $82,669 median income, cost of living beats 58% of towns.
Is Brookside safe?
Brookside is safer than 25% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $371 per resident a year.
Compare Brookside with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brookside. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brookside 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.
Brookside detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brookside: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brookside: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brookside: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brookside: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brookside 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.