Best PlacesLavallette, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lavallette, 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.
Lavallette ranks 21,387th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lavallette
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.
Lavallette's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lavallette ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
Where Lavallette ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 51 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,478 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lavallette
A household needs to earn about $280,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lavallette home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $116,298, 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 Lavallette's effective rate of 0.56%, 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 Lavallette
Lavallette 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 Lavallette.
Who works in Lavallette, and how
Work in Lavallette centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Lavallette
Lavallette has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of towns. The coast is about 0 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Lavallette and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lavallette, month by month
Lavallette sees roughly 51 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 32° | 22° |
| April | 65° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 90° | 77° | 65° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Lavallette
The nearest airport, Atlantic City International, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is John F Kennedy International, about 49 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lavallette
Schools across Lavallette average a C, better than 29% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lavallette Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- East Dover Elementary SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Toms River Intermediate School EastD+ · 26% proficient
Top high schools
- Toms River High School EastC · 31% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lavallette school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lavallette 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 Lavallette against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lavallette
Is Lavallette a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lavallette ranks 21,387th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, fast internet, and walkability, and lowest on an overheated housing market and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lavallette expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,107,710. The overall cost of living runs about 78% above the national average. Set against a $116,298 median income, cost of living beats 31% of towns.
Is Lavallette safe?
Yes, Lavallette is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $164 per resident a year.
Compare Lavallette with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lavallette. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lavallette 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.
Lavallette detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lavallette: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lavallette: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lavallette: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lavallette: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lavallette 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.