Best PlacesEdison, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Edison, 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.
Edison ranks 69th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $139,755, wages outrun the cost of living, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are long commutes, property taxes, and state finances.
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The best neighborhoods in Edison
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.
Edison's strengths and weaknesses
Edison ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. High incomes, what local pay buys, and health care access carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Long commutes, property taxes, and state finances hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Edison ranks high
- Household income$139,755 median, better than 95% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 88% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 92% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of cities
- Low vacancyBetter than 97% of cities
Where Edison ranks low
- Short commute34.0 minutes each way, better than only 6% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 77 pleasant days a year, better than only 29% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 41% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Edison
A household needs to earn about $155,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Edison home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $139,755; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.7% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-08-20 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 Edison's effective rate of 2.08%, 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 Edison
Edison's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Edison.
Who works in Edison, and how
Work in Edison 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 64%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Edison
Edison has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of cities and more parkland per resident than 89% of cities. The coast is about 12 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Edison and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Edison, month by month
Edison sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 35° | 29° |
| April | 64° | 54° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 78° | 71° |
| October | 68° | 59° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Edison
Newark Liberty International sits about 15 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 Edison
Schools across Edison average a B−, better than 68% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Woodbrook Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- James Madison Intermediate SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Martin Luther King Elementary SchoolA · 64% proficient
Top middle schools
- John Adams Middle SchoolA · 59% proficient
- Woodrow Wilson Middle SchoolA− · 55% proficient
- Edgar Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
Top high schools
- Edison Academy Magnet SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- John P. Stevens High SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- Metuchen High SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Edison school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Edison 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 Edison against the other 444 cities.
Who Edison suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 25% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Edison
Is Edison a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Edison ranks 69th of 445 cities. It scores highest on high incomes, what local pay buys, and health care access, and lowest on long commutes and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Edison expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $501,557. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $139,755 median income, cost of living beats 88% of cities.
Is Edison safe?
Yes, Edison is safer than 72% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $211 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Edison?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 42 with lows near 29. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 29% of cities.
Is Edison good for families?
Schools beat 68% of cities, crime safety beats 72%, and childcare runs $1,499 a month.
Is Edison good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 93% of cities. About 25% of workers already work from home.
Compare Edison with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Edison. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Edison 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.
Edison detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Edison: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Edison: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Edison: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Edison: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Edison 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.