Best PlacesColts Neck, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Colts Neck, 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.
Colts Neck ranks 958th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Colts Neck
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.
Colts Neck's strengths and weaknesses
Where Colts Neck ranks high
- Household income$197,592 median, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
Where Colts Neck ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,493 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 14% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Colts Neck
A household needs to earn about $260,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Colts Neck home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $197,592, 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 Colts Neck's effective rate of 1.34%, 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 Colts Neck
Colts Neck runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Colts Neck.
Who works in Colts Neck, and how
Work in Colts Neck centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Colts Neck
Colts Neck has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of towns. The coast is about 15 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Colts Neck and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Colts Neck, month by month
Colts Neck sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 26° |
| April | 64° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 70° | 59° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Colts Neck
Newark Liberty International sits about 27 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 Colts Neck
Schools across Colts Neck average a B−, better than 61% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Village SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Conover Road Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Lincroft Elementary SchoolB · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Indian Hill SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Thompson Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Cedar Drive Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- High Technology High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Holmdel High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
- Marlboro High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Colts Neck school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Colts Neck 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 Colts Neck against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Colts Neck
Is Colts Neck a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Colts Neck ranks 958th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, big-city access, and what local pay buys, 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 Colts Neck expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $927,343. The overall cost of living runs about 28% above the national average. Set against a $197,592 median income, cost of living beats 99% of towns.
Is Colts Neck safe?
Yes, Colts Neck is safer than 95% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $109 per resident a year.
Compare Colts Neck with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Colts Neck. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Colts Neck 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.
Colts Neck detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Colts Neck: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Colts Neck: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Colts Neck: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Colts Neck: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Colts Neck 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.