Best PlacesPine Meadow, CT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pine Meadow, 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 Meadow ranks 4,331st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Pine Meadow
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 Meadow's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pine Meadow ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 97% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
Where Pine Meadow ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,407 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 63 pleasant days a year, better than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pine Meadow
A household needs to earn about $88,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pine Meadow home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $98,937, 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 Meadow's effective rate of 1.84%, 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 Meadow
Pine Meadow runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pine Meadow.
Who works in Pine Meadow, and how
Work in Pine Meadow centers on retail trade and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Pine Meadow
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Pine Meadow.
What the weather is like in Pine Meadow, month by month
Pine Meadow sees roughly 63 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 30° | 20° |
| April | 64° | 50° | 38° |
| July | 89° | 76° | 64° |
| October | 69° | 55° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Pine Meadow
Bradley International sits about 16 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.3 million passengers in 2025, with 92 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Pine Meadow
Schools across Pine Meadow average an A−, better than 82% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Barkhamsted Elementary SchoolA− · 57% proficient
Top middle schools
- Northwestern Regional Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Northwestern Regional High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pine Meadow school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pine Meadow 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 Meadow against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pine Meadow
Is Pine Meadow a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pine Meadow ranks 4,331st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, health care access, and fast internet, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pine Meadow expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $293,027. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $98,937 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Pine Meadow safe?
Yes, Pine Meadow is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $209 per resident a year.
Compare Pine Meadow with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pine Meadow. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pine Meadow 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 Meadow detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pine Meadow: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pine Meadow: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pine Meadow: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pine Meadow: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pine Meadow 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.