Best PlacesUnion Beach, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Union Beach, 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.
Union Beach ranks 9,980th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and state finances rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Union Beach
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.
Union Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Union Beach ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
Where Union Beach ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,493 a month, better than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Union Beach
A household needs to earn about $142,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Union Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $141,259; 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 Union Beach's effective rate of 2.04%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Union Beach
Union Beach's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Union Beach.
Who works in Union Beach, and how
Work in Union Beach centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Union Beach
Union Beach has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of towns. The coast is about 1 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Union Beach and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Union Beach, month by month
Union Beach sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 35° | 29° |
| April | 64° | 54° | 46° |
| July | 87° | 78° | 71° |
| October | 68° | 59° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Union Beach
Newark Liberty International sits about 17 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 23.5 million passengers in 2025, with 242 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Union Beach
Schools across Union Beach average a D+, better than 13% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Memorial SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
- Keyport Central SchoolD · 18% proficient
- Joseph C. Caruso SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hazlet Middle SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Joseph R. Bolger Middle SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Raritan High SchoolC− · 29% proficient
- Keyport High SchoolD− · 15% proficient
- Keansburg High SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Union Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Union Beach 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 Union Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Union Beach
Is Union Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Union Beach ranks 9,980th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, big-city access, and fast internet, and lowest on state finances and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Union Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $464,442. The overall cost of living runs about 15% above the national average. Set against a $141,259 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Union Beach safe?
Yes, Union Beach is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $137 per resident a year.
Compare Union Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Union Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Union Beach 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.
Union Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Union Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Union Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Union Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Union Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Union Beach 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.