Best PlacesCheswold, DE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cheswold, 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.
Cheswold ranks 27,480th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cheswold
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.
Cheswold's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cheswold ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- BikingBetter than 89% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of towns
Where Cheswold ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 12% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 14% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 15% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cheswold
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cheswold home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $77,399; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Cheswold's effective rate of 0.46%, 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 Cheswold
Cheswold runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cheswold.
Who works in Cheswold, and how
Work in Cheswold centers on health care & social and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Cheswold
The coast is about 20 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Cheswold, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cheswold, month by month
Cheswold sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46° | 36° | 27° |
| April | 68° | 55° | 45° |
| July | 89° | 79° | 70° |
| October | 72° | 61° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Cheswold
The nearest airport, New Castle, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 49 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cheswold
Schools across Cheswold average a D+, better than 12% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sunnyside Elementary SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Booker T. Washington Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
- North Dover Elementary SchoolD · 18% proficient
Top middle schools
- Clayton Intermediate SchoolC− · 29% proficient
- William Henry Middle SchoolD− · 16% proficient
Top high schools
- Smyrna High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- Dover High SchoolC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cheswold school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cheswold 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 Cheswold against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cheswold
Is Cheswold a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cheswold ranks 27,480th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on an overheated housing market and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cheswold expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $318,574. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $77,399 median income, cost of living beats 57% of towns.
Is Cheswold safe?
Cheswold is safer than 42% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $290 per resident a year.
Compare Cheswold with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cheswold. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cheswold 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.
Cheswold detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cheswold: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cheswold: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cheswold: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cheswold: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cheswold 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.