Best PlacesPaterson, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Paterson, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Paterson ranks 408th of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 28 minutes away. Its strengths are fast internet and walkability. The cost shows up in property taxes, civic engagement, and state finances.
The best neighborhoods in Paterson
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.
The best areas in Paterson
The parts of Paterson, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Lake View
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and health care is easier to reach.
Downtown Paterson
More households have young kids.
Albion Place
It is noisier.
Scores across Paterson run from about the 6th to the 73rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Paterson's strengths and weaknesses
Paterson ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Fast internet is the standout, in the top 2% of cities. Walkability and big-city access follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: property taxes, civic engagement, and state finances all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Paterson ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 97% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of cities
- TransitBetter than 91% of cities
Where Paterson ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 1% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 1% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 1% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 1% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Paterson
A household needs to earn about $111,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Paterson home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $63,930, 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 Paterson's effective rate of 2.24%, 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 Paterson
Paterson runs younger than the country, 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 Paterson.
Who works in Paterson, and how
Work in Paterson centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 16%
Life in Paterson
Paterson has more restaurants and bars per resident than 75% of cities and more parkland per resident than 78% of cities. The coast is about 28 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Paterson and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Paterson, month by month
Paterson 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.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 26° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 59° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Paterson
Newark Liberty International sits about 16 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 Paterson
Schools across Paterson average a D−, better than 3% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- School 28A · 70% proficient
- Lyncrest Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Harbor View School (the)B · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- Memorial Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Memorial Middle SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
- Garfield Middle SchoolD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Port Richmond High SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
- Fair Lawn High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Eagle Academy For Young Men Of Staten Island (the)C+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Paterson school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Paterson 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 Paterson against the other 444 cities.
Who Paterson suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 6% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Paterson
Is Paterson a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Paterson ranks 408th of 445 cities. It scores highest on fast internet, walkability, and big-city access, 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 Paterson expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $355,942. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $63,930 median income, cost of living beats 1% of cities.
Is Paterson safe?
Paterson is safer than 33% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $308 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Paterson?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 44 with lows near 26. That works out to about 58 pleasant days a year, more than 3% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Paterson?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Lake View, Downtown Paterson, and Albion Place. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Paterson good for families?
Schools beat 3% of cities, crime safety beats 33%, and childcare runs $1,458 a month.
Is Paterson good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 1% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 98% of cities. About 6% of workers already work from home.
Compare Paterson with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Paterson. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Paterson 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.
Paterson detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Paterson: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Paterson: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Paterson: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Paterson: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Paterson 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.