Best PlacesCenterton, NJ Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Centerton, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Centerton ranks 11,446th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.

#11,446
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Centerton

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Centerton area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Centerton's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%Big-city access
Top 10%Few empty homes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Centerton with other towns.

Where Centerton ranks high

  • Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than 92% of towns
  • Household income$102,184 median, better than 86% of towns
  • QuietBetter than 84% of towns
  • Crime safetyBetter than 83% of towns

Where Centerton ranks low

  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$1,341 a month, better than only 8% of towns
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
  • Nice weatherabout 65 pleasant days a year, better than only 15% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Centerton

A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Centerton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $102,184, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$92,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,143
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $293,574 home
Median rent
$1,692
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,497
Property tax$548
Homeowners insurance$98

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 Centerton's effective rate of 2.24%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Centerton

Centerton runs older than the country.

Median age
45
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1817%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4921%
50 to 6422%
65 and older19%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Centerton.


Who works in Centerton, and how

Work in Centerton centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
6%
below the national average
Unemployment
5.9%
above the national average
Job growth
+12.6%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social16%
Manufacturing15%
Education11%
Retail trade10%
Construction10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 93%
  • Work from home 6%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 1%

Life in Centerton

Centerton has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Centerton and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Parkland
51 acres
about 39.0 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 99% of towns

What the weather is like in Centerton, month by month

Centerton sees roughly 65 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January46°35°24°
April68°54°41°
July89°77°67°
October72°59°47°

Flying in and out of Centerton

Philadelphia International sits about 24 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 14.8 million passengers in 2025, with 179 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
PHL
Philadelphia International, about 24 miles
Airport size
Large hub
21st-busiest in the US, 179 nonstop destinations
Average drive
35 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Centerton

Schools across Centerton average a C−, better than 20% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Centerton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Centerton 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 Centerton against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Centerton

Is Centerton a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Centerton ranks 11,446th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, few empty homes, and high incomes, and lowest on state finances and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Centerton expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $293,574. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $102,184 median income, cost of living beats 82% of towns.

Is Centerton safe?

Yes, Centerton is safer than 83% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $142 per resident a year.


Compare Centerton with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Centerton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Centerton 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.

Centerton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Centerton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Centerton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Centerton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Centerton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Centerton detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.