Best PlacesEssex Village, CT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Essex Village, 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.
Essex Village ranks 2,046th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Essex Village
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.
Essex Village's strengths and weaknesses
Where Essex Village ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 97% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$125,741 median, better than 94% of towns
Where Essex Village ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,334 a month, better than only 8% of towns
- Short commute34.1 minutes each way, better than only 16% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Essex Village
A household needs to earn about $156,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Essex Village home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $125,741, 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 Essex Village's effective rate of 1.08%, 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 Essex Village
Essex Village 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 Essex Village.
Who works in Essex Village, and how
Work in Essex Village centers on construction and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 69%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Essex Village
The coast is about 19 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Essex Village, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Essex Village, month by month
Essex Village sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 32° | 26° |
| April | 59° | 50° | 42° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 67° |
| October | 66° | 57° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Essex Village
The nearest airport, Tweed/New Haven, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 42 miles away.
The best schools in and around Essex Village
Schools across Essex Village average an A−, better than 90% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lyme Consolidated SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Essex Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lyme-old Lyme Middle SchoolA · 65% proficient
- John Winthrop Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Lyme-old Lyme High SchoolA · 72% proficient
- Valley Regional High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Essex Village school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Essex Village 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 Essex Village against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Essex Village
Is Essex Village a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Essex Village ranks 2,046th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, civic engagement, and an educated workforce, and lowest on state finances and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Essex Village expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $576,165. The overall cost of living runs about 15% above the national average. Set against a $125,741 median income, cost of living beats 91% of towns.
Is Essex Village safe?
Yes, Essex Village is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $162 per resident a year.
Compare Essex Village with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Essex Village. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Essex Village 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.
Essex Village detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Essex Village: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Essex Village: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Essex Village: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Essex Village: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Essex Village 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.