Best PlacesCarteret, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carteret, 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.
Carteret ranks 1,333rd of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Carteret
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.
Carteret's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carteret ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 90% of cities
- TransitBetter than 89% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than 72% of cities
Where Carteret ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 9% of cities
- School gradeD+, better than only 9% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 14% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Carteret
A household needs to earn about $124,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carteret home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $108,009, 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 Carteret's effective rate of 1.78%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Carteret
Carteret 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 Carteret.
Who works in Carteret, and how
Work in Carteret centers on transportation & warehousing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Carteret
Carteret has more restaurants and bars per resident than 95% of cities and more parkland per resident than 83% of cities. The coast is about 12 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Carteret and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Carteret, month by month
Carteret sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 35° | 29° |
| April | 64° | 54° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 78° | 71° |
| October | 68° | 59° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Carteret
Newark Liberty International sits about 8 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 Carteret
Schools across Carteret average a D+, better than 9% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Private Nicholas Minue Elementary SchoolC · 31% proficient
- Columbus Elementary SchoolD− · 15% proficient
- Nathan Hale Elementary SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Carteret Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Carteret High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carteret school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carteret 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 Carteret against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Carteret suits
Common questions about living in Carteret
Is Carteret a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carteret ranks 1,333rd of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on big-city access, cell coverage, and walkability, and lowest on state finances and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carteret expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $417,668. The overall cost of living runs about 14% above the national average. Set against a $108,009 median income, cost of living beats 47% of cities.
Is Carteret safe?
Carteret is safer than 36% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $233 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Carteret?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 29. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 40% of cities.
Is Carteret good for families?
Schools beat 9% of cities, crime safety beats 36%, and childcare runs $1,499 a month.
Compare Carteret with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carteret. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carteret 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.
Carteret detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carteret: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carteret: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carteret: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carteret: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carteret 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.