Best PlacesOyster Creek, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Oyster Creek, 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.
Oyster Creek ranks 12,564th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Oyster Creek
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.
Oyster Creek's strengths and weaknesses
Where Oyster Creek ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 92% of towns
Where Oyster Creek ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 58 pleasant days a year, better than only 6% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,355 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Oyster Creek
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oyster Creek home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $111,979, 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 Oyster Creek's effective rate of 1.41%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Oyster Creek
Oyster Creek runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Oyster Creek.
Who works in Oyster Creek, and how
Work in Oyster Creek centers on education and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 94%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Oyster Creek
The coast is about 19 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Oyster Creek, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Oyster Creek, month by month
Oyster Creek sees roughly 58 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 36° | 26° |
| April | 67° | 54° | 42° |
| July | 89° | 78° | 68° |
| October | 72° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Oyster Creek
The nearest airport, Atlantic City International, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 50 miles away.
The best schools in and around Oyster Creek
Schools across Oyster Creek average a C−, better than 25% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Brigantine Community SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Smithville Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Galloway Township Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Absegami High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Atlantic City High SchoolD · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oyster Creek school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Oyster Creek 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 Oyster Creek against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Oyster Creek
Is Oyster Creek a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oyster Creek ranks 12,564th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, big-city access, and clean air, and lowest on state finances and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Oyster Creek expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $268,000. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $111,979 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Oyster Creek safe?
Yes, Oyster Creek is safer than 89% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $125 per resident a year.
Compare Oyster Creek with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oyster Creek. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oyster Creek 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.
Oyster Creek detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Oyster Creek: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Oyster Creek: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Oyster Creek: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Oyster Creek: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Oyster Creek 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.