Best PlacesHillside, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hillside, 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.
Hillside ranks 17,709th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hillside
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.
Hillside's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hillside ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
Where Hillside ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,432 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 58 pleasant days a year, better than only 6% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hillside
A household needs to earn about $131,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hillside home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $109,995, 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 Hillside's effective rate of 2.54%, 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 Hillside
Hillside runs younger than the country, 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 Hillside.
Who works in Hillside, and how
Work in Hillside centers on health care & social and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 18%
Life in Hillside
Hillside has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. The coast is about 17 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Hillside and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hillside, month by month
Hillside sees roughly 58 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 67° | 54° | 44° |
| July | 91° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 71° | 60° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Hillside
Newark Liberty International sits about 3 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 Hillside
Schools across Hillside average a D, better than 6% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Livingston ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
- Deanna G. Taylor AcademyD · 20% proficient
- Hurden Looker SchoolD · 19% proficient
Top middle schools
- William F. Halloran School No.22B− · 40% proficient
- Walter O. Krumbiegel Middle SchoolD− · 18% proficient
- Union Avenue Middle SchoolF · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Elizabeth High School - Frank J Cicarell AcademyB · 47% proficient
- Alexander Hamilton Preparatory AcademyC− · 25% proficient
- Hillside High SchoolD · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hillside school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hillside 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 Hillside against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Hillside suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 71% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 10% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Hillside
Is Hillside a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hillside ranks 17,709th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, big-city access, and transit, and lowest on property taxes 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 Hillside expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $404,294. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $109,995 median income, cost of living beats 71% of towns.
Is Hillside safe?
Hillside is safer than 20% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $310 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Hillside?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 45 with lows near 26. That works out to about 58 pleasant days a year, more than 6% of towns.
Is Hillside good for families?
Schools beat 6% of towns, crime safety beats 20%, and childcare runs $1,432 a month.
Compare Hillside with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hillside. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hillside 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.
Hillside detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hillside: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hillside: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hillside: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hillside: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hillside 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.