Best PlacesCliffside Park, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cliffside Park, 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.
Cliffside Park ranks 965th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Cliffside Park
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.
Cliffside Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cliffside Park ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of cities
- TransitBetter than 98% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of cities
- QuietBetter than 95% of cities
Where Cliffside Park ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of cities
- Short commute35.6 minutes each way, better than only 5% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 14% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,508 a month, better than only 14% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Cliffside Park
A household needs to earn about $179,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cliffside Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $92,188, 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 Cliffside Park's effective rate of 1.77%, 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 Cliffside Park
Cliffside Park runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cliffside Park.
Who works in Cliffside Park, and how
Work in Cliffside Park centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 53%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 29%
Life in Cliffside Park
Cliffside Park has more restaurants and bars per resident than 83% of cities. The coast is about 20 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Cliffside Park and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cliffside Park, month by month
Cliffside Park sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 35° | 28° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 44° |
| July | 88° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 69° | 60° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Cliffside Park
Laguardia sits about 7 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 118 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Cliffside Park
Schools across Cliffside Park average a C, better than 21% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- 47 American Sign Language And English Lower School (the)A− · 58% proficient
- School #4C · 33% proficient
- School #3C− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- School #6/middle SchoolC · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Eagle Academy For Young Men Of HarlemA · 78% proficient
- Cliffside Park High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cliffside Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cliffside Park 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 Cliffside Park against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Cliffside Park suits
Common questions about living in Cliffside Park
Is Cliffside Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cliffside Park ranks 965th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on walkability, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on state finances and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cliffside Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $605,551. The overall cost of living runs about 32% above the national average. Set against a $92,188 median income, cost of living beats 14% of cities.
Is Cliffside Park safe?
Cliffside Park is safer than 21% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $280 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Cliffside Park?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 28. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 39% of cities.
Is Cliffside Park good for families?
Schools beat 21% of cities, crime safety beats 21%, and childcare runs $1,508 a month.
Compare Cliffside Park with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cliffside Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cliffside Park 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.
Cliffside Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cliffside Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cliffside Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cliffside Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cliffside Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cliffside Park 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.