Best PlacesFort Lee, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fort Lee, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Fort Lee ranks 558th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Fort Lee
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.
Fort Lee's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fort Lee ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of cities
- TransitBetter than 97% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 91% of cities
Where Fort Lee ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 5% of cities
- Short commute35.0 minutes each way, better than only 6% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 61 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 11% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Fort Lee
A household needs to earn about $156,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fort Lee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $120,550, 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 Fort Lee's effective rate of 1.69%, 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 Fort Lee
Fort Lee 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 Fort Lee.
Who works in Fort Lee, and how
Work in Fort Lee centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 53%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 26%
Life in Fort Lee
Fort Lee has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of cities and more parkland per resident than 76% of cities. The coast is about 16 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Fort Lee and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fort Lee, month by month
Fort Lee sees roughly 61 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 26° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Fort Lee
Laguardia sits about 7 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 118 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Fort Lee
Schools across Fort Lee average a B+, better than 69% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- School No. 1A · 65% proficient
- School No. 4B+ · 55% proficient
- School No. 3B+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lewis F. Cole Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Fort Lee High SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fort Lee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fort Lee 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 Fort Lee against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Fort Lee suits
Common questions about living in Fort Lee
Is Fort Lee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fort Lee ranks 558th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, big-city access, and walkability, and lowest on state finances and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fort Lee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $532,910. The overall cost of living runs about 22% above the national average. Set against a $120,550 median income, cost of living beats 62% of cities.
Is Fort Lee safe?
Fort Lee is safer than 29% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $271 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Fort Lee?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 26. That works out to about 61 pleasant days a year, more than 8% of cities.
Is Fort Lee good for families?
Schools beat 69% of cities, crime safety beats 29%, and childcare runs $1,508 a month.
Compare Fort Lee with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fort Lee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fort Lee 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.
Fort Lee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fort Lee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fort Lee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fort Lee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fort Lee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fort Lee 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.