Best PlacesMountain Lakes, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mountain Lakes, 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.
Mountain Lakes ranks 207th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Mountain Lakes
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.
Mountain Lakes' strengths and weaknesses
Where Mountain Lakes ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$231,227 median, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
Where Mountain Lakes ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,554 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 13% of towns
- Short commute33.1 minutes each way, better than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mountain Lakes
A household needs to earn about $300,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mountain Lakes home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $231,227, 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 Mountain Lakes' effective rate of 2.11%, 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 Mountain Lakes
Mountain Lakes runs older than the country, though fewer residents are over 65 than the national share, 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 Mountain Lakes.
Who works in Mountain Lakes, and how
Work in Mountain Lakes centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 62%
- Work from home 30%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Mountain Lakes
The coast is about 38 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Mountain Lakes, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mountain Lakes, month by month
Mountain Lakes sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 24. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 32° | 24° |
| April | 63° | 52° | 41° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 67° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Mountain Lakes
Newark Liberty International sits about 20 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 Mountain Lakes
Schools across Mountain Lakes average an A, better than 86% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Riverview Elementary SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Rockaway Valley SchoolB− · 44% proficient
- Intervale Elementary SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Brooklawn Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Valleyview Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Academy For BiotechnologyA− · 60% proficient
- Parsippany Hills High SchoolB · 48% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mountain Lakes school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mountain Lakes 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 Mountain Lakes against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mountain Lakes
Is Mountain Lakes a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mountain Lakes ranks 207th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, population health, and what local pay buys, and lowest on state finances and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mountain Lakes expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $974,531. The overall cost of living runs about 18% above the national average. Set against a $231,227 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Mountain Lakes safe?
Yes, Mountain Lakes is safer than 89% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $130 per resident a year.
Compare Mountain Lakes with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mountain Lakes. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mountain Lakes 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.
Mountain Lakes detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mountain Lakes: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mountain Lakes: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mountain Lakes: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mountain Lakes: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mountain Lakes 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.