Best PlacesMaplewood, NY Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Maplewood, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Maplewood ranks 30,925th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Maplewood
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.
Maplewood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Maplewood ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of towns
- TransitBetter than 91% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 88% of towns
- Household income$105,779 median, better than 88% of towns
Where Maplewood ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 7% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Maplewood
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Maplewood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $105,779, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Maplewood's effective rate of 1.97%, 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 Maplewood
Maplewood runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Maplewood.
Who works in Maplewood, and how
Work in Maplewood centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Maplewood
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Maplewood.
What the weather is like in Maplewood, month by month
Maplewood sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 17° |
| April | 58° | 45° | 34° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Maplewood
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 73 miles away.
The best schools in and around Maplewood
Schools across Maplewood average a C+, better than 64% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Kenneth L Rutherford SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Top middle schools
- Robert J Kaiser Middle SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Top high schools
- Monticello High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Maplewood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Maplewood 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 Maplewood against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Maplewood
Is Maplewood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Maplewood ranks 30,925th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, what local pay buys, and transit, and lowest on property taxes and civic engagement. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Maplewood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $223,299. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $105,779 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Maplewood safe?
Maplewood is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $484 per resident a year.
Compare Maplewood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Maplewood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Maplewood 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.
Maplewood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Maplewood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Maplewood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Maplewood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Maplewood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Maplewood 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.