Best PlacesCool Spring, DE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cool Spring, 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.
Cool Spring ranks 10,235th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Cool Spring
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.
Cool Spring's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cool Spring ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
Where Cool Spring ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 61 pleasant days a year, better than only 10% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 17% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 25% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cool Spring
A household needs to earn about $139,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cool Spring home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $111,944, 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 Cool Spring's effective rate of 0.29%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Cool Spring
Cool Spring runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Cool Spring.
Who works in Cool Spring, and how
Work in Cool Spring centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Cool Spring
The coast is about 14 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Cool Spring, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cool Spring, month by month
Cool Spring sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 38° | 28° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 45° |
| July | 91° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 74° | 61° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Cool Spring
The nearest airport, Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 80 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cool Spring
Schools across Cool Spring average a C+, better than 52% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Milton Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mariner Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Cape Henlopen High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cool Spring school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cool Spring 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 Cool Spring against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cool Spring
Is Cool Spring a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cool Spring ranks 10,235th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, civic engagement, and health care access, and lowest on the weather and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cool Spring expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $569,900. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $111,944 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Cool Spring safe?
Cool Spring is safer than 26% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $330 per resident a year.
Compare Cool Spring with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cool Spring. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cool Spring 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.
Cool Spring detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cool Spring: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cool Spring: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cool Spring: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cool Spring: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cool Spring 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.