Best PlacesUnion City, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Union City, 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.
Union City ranks 1,685th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Union City
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 City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Union City ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of cities
- BikingBetter than 98% of cities
Where Union City ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 2% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 2% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 2% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than only 4% of cities
- School gradeD, better than only 4% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Union City
A household needs to earn about $153,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Union City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $68,773, 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 Union City's effective rate of 1.87%, 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 Union City
Union City runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Union City.
Who works in Union City, and how
Work in Union City centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 44%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 48%
Life in Union City
Union City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of cities. The coast is about 18 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Union City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Union City, month by month
Union City sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 35° | 28° |
| April | 65° | 53° | 44° |
| July | 88° | 78° | 70° |
| October | 69° | 60° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Union City
Laguardia sits about 8 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 Union City
Schools across Union City average a D, better than 4% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Sara M. Gilmore AcademyB · 49% proficient
- Jefferson Elementary SchoolD+ · 23% proficient
- Christa Mcauliffe SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Academy IA− · 55% proficient
- Union Hill Middle SchoolD · 21% proficient
- Emerson Middle SchoolD · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Jose Marti Stem AcademyB+ · 53% proficient
- North Bergen High SchoolD · 19% proficient
- Union City High SchoolD · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Union City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Union City 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 City against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Union City suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Union City
Is Union City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Union City ranks 1,685th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on transit, walkability, and cell coverage, and lowest on civic engagement and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Union City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $511,449. The overall cost of living runs about 22% above the national average. Set against a $68,773 median income, cost of living beats 2% of cities.
Is Union City safe?
Union City is safer than 17% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $284 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Union City?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 28. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 39% of cities.
Is Union City good for families?
Schools beat 4% of cities, crime safety beats 17%, and childcare runs $1,520 a month.
Compare Union City with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Union City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Union City 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 City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Union City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Union City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Union City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Union City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Union City 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.