Best PlacesBrookside, NJ 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. 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.
Brookside ranks 17th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
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
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$250,001 median, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
Where Brookside ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,554 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 7% of towns
- Short commute37.7 minutes each way, better than only 8% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 73 pleasant days a year, better than only 33% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brookside
A household needs to earn about $290,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brookside home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $250,001, 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 Brookside's effective rate of 1.69%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Brookside
Brookside runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
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 professional & technical and finance & insurance. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 57%
- Work from home 39%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Brookside
The coast is about 49 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Brookside, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brookside, month by month
Brookside sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 32° | 24° |
| April | 63° | 52° | 41° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Brookside
Newark Liberty International sits about 22 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 Brookside
Schools across Brookside average an A, better than 91% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mendham Township Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mendham Township Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
Top high schools
- West Morris Mendham High SchoolA− · 62% 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 17th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, what local pay buys, and high incomes, and lowest on state finances and childcare costs. 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 $990,600. The overall cost of living runs about 23% above the national average. Set against a $250,001 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Brookside safe?
Yes, Brookside is safer than 100% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $73 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.