Best PlacesNew Milford, NJ Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around New Milford, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

New Milford ranks 4,099th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.

#4,099
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 50,333 towns
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The best neighborhoods in New Milford

Map of the best neighborhoods in the New Milford area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

New Milford's strengths and weaknesses

Top 1%Big-city access
Top 1%Transit
Top 3%Fast internet
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare New Milford with other towns.

Where New Milford ranks high

  • Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
  • TransitBetter than 99% of towns
  • Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
  • Health outlookBetter than 98% of towns
  • WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns

Where New Milford ranks low

  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$1,508 a month, better than only 3% of towns
  • Nice weatherabout 58 pleasant days a year, better than only 6% of towns
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 15% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in New Milford

A household needs to earn about $188,000 a year to comfortably buy the median New Milford home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $127,187, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$188,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$4,388
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $605,808 home
Median rent
$2,140
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$3,089
Property tax$1,097
Homeowners insurance$202

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 New Milford's effective rate of 2.17%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in New Milford

New Milford's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
41
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
17%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3422%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6419%
65 and older17%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for New Milford.


Who works in New Milford, and how

Work in New Milford centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
17%
above the national average
Unemployment
4.6%
about the national average
Job growth
−0.9%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social15%
Professional & technical13%
Education9%
Retail trade9%
Finance & insurance8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 72%
  • Work from home 17%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 10%

Life in New Milford

New Milford has more parkland per resident than 81% of towns. The coast is about 24 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of New Milford and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
43
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 25.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 59% of towns
Coffee shops
5
about 3.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 73% of towns
Parkland
51 acres
about 3.0 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 81% of towns
To the coast
24 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in New Milford, month by month

New Milford sees roughly 58 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.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January44°34°26°
April65°53°42°
July90°79°69°
October71°59°48°

Flying in and out of New Milford

Laguardia sits about 13 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 118 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
LGA
Laguardia, about 13 miles
Airport size
Large hub
19th-busiest in the US, 118 nonstop destinations
Average drive
19 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around New Milford

Schools across New Milford average a C, better than 31% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every New Milford school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


New Milford 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 New Milford against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in New Milford

Is New Milford a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, New Milford ranks 4,099th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, transit, and fast internet, 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 New Milford expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $605,808. The overall cost of living runs about 22% above the national average. Set against a $127,187 median income, cost of living beats 79% of towns.

Is New Milford safe?

New Milford is safer than 55% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $198 per resident a year.


Compare New Milford with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to New Milford. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in New Milford 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.

New Milford detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for New Milford: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in New Milford: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of New Milford: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in New Milford: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

New Milford detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.