Best PlacesPine Beach, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pine Beach, 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.
Pine Beach ranks 5,652nd 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.
The best neighborhoods in Pine Beach
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.
Pine Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pine Beach ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$135,349 median, better than 96% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
Where Pine Beach ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 51 pleasant days a year, better than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,478 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pine Beach
A household needs to earn about $128,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pine Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $135,349, 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 Pine Beach's effective rate of 1.52%, 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 Pine Beach
Pine Beach runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pine Beach.
Who works in Pine Beach, and how
Work in Pine Beach centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Pine Beach
The coast is about 12 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Pine Beach, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pine Beach, month by month
Pine Beach sees roughly 51 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 32° | 22° |
| April | 65° | 51° | 39° |
| July | 90° | 77° | 65° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Pine Beach
The nearest airport, Atlantic City International, is about 40 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 52 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pine Beach
Schools across Pine Beach average a D+, better than 15% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Island Heights Elementary SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Pine Beach Elementary SchoolD+ · 23% proficient
- Bayville Elementary SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Central Regional Middle SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Toms River Intermediate School SouthD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Toms River High School SouthC− · 27% proficient
- Central Regional High SchoolD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pine Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pine Beach 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 Pine Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pine Beach
Is Pine Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pine Beach ranks 5,652nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, high incomes, and cell coverage, and lowest on state finances and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pine Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $445,155. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $135,349 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Pine Beach safe?
Yes, Pine Beach is safer than 90% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $124 per resident a year.
Compare Pine Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pine Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pine Beach 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.
Pine Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pine Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pine Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pine Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pine Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pine Beach 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.