Best PlacesEssex, VT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Essex, 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 ranks 2,346th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Essex
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's strengths and weaknesses
Where Essex ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
Where Essex ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,718 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 14% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 22% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 74 pleasant days a year, better than only 34% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Essex
A household needs to earn about $121,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Essex home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $107,384, 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's effective rate of 1.51%, 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
Essex's age mix sits close to the national median, 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.
Who works in Essex, and how
Work in Essex centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Essex
Essex has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Essex and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Essex, month by month
Essex sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 24° | 15° |
| April | 59° | 46° | 35° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Essex
The nearest airport, Patrick Leahy Burlington International, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 178 miles away.
The best schools in and around Essex
Schools across Essex average an A−, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cumberland Head Elementary SchoolA · 63% proficient
- Hiawatha Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Summit Street SchoolB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Essex Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
- Albert D. Lawton SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Frederick H. Tuttle Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Plattsburgh Senior High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Peru High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- South Burlington High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Essex school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Essex 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 against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Essex suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 83% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 20% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Essex
Is Essex a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Essex ranks 2,346th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, biking, and low disaster risk, and lowest on childcare costs and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Essex expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $420,336. The overall cost of living runs about 3% above the national average. Set against a $107,384 median income, cost of living beats 83% of towns.
Is Essex safe?
Essex is safer than 54% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $315 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Essex?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 15. That works out to about 74 pleasant days a year, more than 34% of towns.
Is Essex good for families?
Schools beat 92% of towns, crime safety beats 54%, and childcare runs $1,718 a month.
Compare Essex with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Essex. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Essex 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 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Essex: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Essex: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Essex: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Essex: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Essex 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.