Best PlacesSaddle Brook, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Saddle Brook, 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.
Saddle Brook ranks 5,304th 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 Saddle Brook
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.
Saddle Brook's strengths and weaknesses
Where Saddle Brook ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
Where Saddle Brook ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,508 a month, better than only 3% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 57 pleasant days a year, better than only 5% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Saddle Brook
A household needs to earn about $154,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Saddle Brook home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $131,985, 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 Saddle Brook's effective rate of 1.97%, 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 Saddle Brook
Saddle Brook runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Saddle Brook.
Who works in Saddle Brook, and how
Work in Saddle Brook centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Saddle Brook
Saddle Brook has more restaurants and bars per resident than 78% of towns and more parkland per resident than 92% of towns. The coast is about 25 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Saddle Brook and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Saddle Brook, month by month
Saddle Brook sees roughly 57 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 Saddle Brook
Laguardia sits about 15 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 118 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Saddle Brook
Schools across Saddle Brook average a C−, better than 26% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Midland School #1C− · 29% proficient
- Columbus SchoolC− · 27% proficient
- Washington SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Thomas Jefferson Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Thomas Jefferson Middle SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Memorial Middle SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Lodi High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Saddle Brook Middle/high SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Garfield High SchoolD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Saddle Brook school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Saddle Brook 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 Saddle Brook against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Saddle Brook
Is Saddle Brook a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Saddle Brook ranks 5,304th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, walkability, and transit, and lowest on state finances and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Saddle Brook expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $506,563. The overall cost of living runs about 16% above the national average. Set against a $131,985 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Saddle Brook safe?
Saddle Brook is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $262 per resident a year.
Compare Saddle Brook with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Saddle Brook. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Saddle Brook 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.
Saddle Brook detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Saddle Brook: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Saddle Brook: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Saddle Brook: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Saddle Brook: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Saddle Brook 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.