Best PlacesPort Murray, NJ Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Port Murray, 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

Port Murray ranks 5,576th 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.

#5,576
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Port Murray

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Port Murray area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Port Murray's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Big-city access
Top 5%Few empty homes
Top 10%Population health
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Port Murray with other towns.

Where Port Murray ranks high

  • Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than 96% of towns
  • Health outlookBetter than 95% of towns
  • Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
  • Household income$116,758 median, better than 92% of towns

Where Port Murray ranks low

  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Low property taxBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$1,437 a month, better than only 5% of towns
  • Short commute35.5 minutes each way, better than only 13% of towns
  • Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 15% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Port Murray

A household needs to earn about $150,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Port Murray home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $116,758, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$150,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,494
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $473,629 home
Median rent
$1,947
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,415
Property tax$921
Homeowners insurance$158

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 Port Murray's effective rate of 2.33%, 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 Port Murray

Port Murray's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
40
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
22%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6418%
65 and older22%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Port Murray.


Who works in Port Murray, and how

Work in Port Murray centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
22%
above the national average
Unemployment
5.7%
above the national average
Job growth
+9.1%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social13%
Construction11%
Education10%
Professional & technical10%
Retail trade9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 74%
  • Work from home 22%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Port Murray

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Port Murray.


What the weather is like in Port Murray, month by month

Port Murray sees roughly 64 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.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January43°32°22°
April67°52°39°
July90°76°64°
October71°56°43°

Flying in and out of Port Murray

The nearest airport, Lehigh Valley International, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 38 miles away.

Nearest airport
ABE
Lehigh Valley International, about 30 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
145th-busiest in the US, 34 nonstop destinations
Average drive
43 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Port Murray

Schools across Port Murray average a C+, better than 47% 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 Port Murray school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Port Murray 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 Port Murray against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Port Murray

Is Port Murray a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Port Murray ranks 5,576th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, few empty homes, and population health, 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 Port Murray expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $473,629. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $116,758 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.

Is Port Murray safe?

Yes, Port Murray is safer than 90% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $127 per resident a year.


Compare Port Murray with other towns


Sources and methodology

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

Port Murray detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Port Murray 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.