Best PlacesTaftville, CT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Taftville, 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.
Taftville ranks 30,182nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Taftville
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.
Taftville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Taftville ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of towns
Where Taftville ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 4% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 6% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,310 a month, better than only 9% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Taftville
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Taftville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $61,285; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Taftville's effective rate of 1.90%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Taftville
Taftville's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Taftville.
Who works in Taftville, and how
Work in Taftville centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Taftville
The coast is about 23 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Taftville, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Taftville, month by month
Taftville sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 30° | 20° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 63° |
| October | 68° | 54° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Taftville
The nearest airport, Westerly State, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 41 miles away.
The best schools in and around Taftville
Schools across Taftville average a D+, better than 16% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Preston Veterans' Memorial SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Lisbon Central SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Wequonnoc Magnet SchoolD · 18% proficient
Top middle schools
- Preston Plains SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Teachers' Memorial Global Studies Magnet Middle SchoolD− · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- Griswold High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Norwich Free AcademyC+ · 39% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Taftville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Taftville 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 Taftville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Taftville
Is Taftville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Taftville ranks 30,182nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, transit, and fast internet, and lowest on an overheated housing market and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Taftville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $225,322. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $61,285 median income, cost of living beats 31% of towns.
Is Taftville safe?
Taftville is safer than 37% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $262 per resident a year.
Compare Taftville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Taftville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Taftville 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.
Taftville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Taftville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Taftville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Taftville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Taftville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Taftville 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.