Best PlacesSpring Lake Heights, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Spring Lake Heights, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Spring Lake Heights ranks 9,250th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Spring Lake Heights
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.
Spring Lake Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Spring Lake Heights ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of towns
Where Spring Lake Heights ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,493 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Spring Lake Heights
A household needs to earn about $211,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Spring Lake Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $107,691, 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 Spring Lake Heights' effective rate of 1.12%, 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 Spring Lake Heights
Spring Lake Heights 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 Spring Lake Heights.
Who works in Spring Lake Heights, and how
Work in Spring Lake Heights centers on education and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Spring Lake Heights
Spring Lake Heights has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of towns. The coast is about 3 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Spring Lake Heights and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Spring Lake Heights, month by month
Spring Lake Heights sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 34° | 26° |
| April | 64° | 53° | 42° |
| July | 88° | 77° | 68° |
| October | 70° | 59° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Spring Lake Heights
John F Kennedy International sits about 36 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 31.0 million passengers in 2025, with 249 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Spring Lake Heights
Schools across Spring Lake Heights average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Spring Lake Heights Elementary SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- West Belmar Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wall Intermediate SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Manasquan High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Wall High SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Spring Lake Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Spring Lake Heights 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 Spring Lake Heights against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Spring Lake Heights
Is Spring Lake Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Spring Lake Heights ranks 9,250th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, big-city access, and biking, and lowest on state finances and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Spring Lake Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $774,119. The overall cost of living runs about 74% above the national average. Set against a $107,691 median income, cost of living beats 21% of towns.
Is Spring Lake Heights safe?
Yes, Spring Lake Heights is safer than 88% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $137 per resident a year.
Compare Spring Lake Heights with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Spring Lake Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Spring Lake Heights 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.
Spring Lake Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Spring Lake Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Spring Lake Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Spring Lake Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Spring Lake Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Spring Lake Heights 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.