Best PlacesWantage, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wantage, 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.
Wantage ranks 10,200th 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 Wantage
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.
Wantage's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wantage ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 94% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 90% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 88% of towns
Where Wantage ranks low
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,439 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Short commute36.3 minutes each way, better than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wantage
A household needs to earn about $119,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wantage home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $104,658, 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 Wantage's effective rate of 2.16%, 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 Wantage
Wantage'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 Wantage.
Who works in Wantage, and how
Work in Wantage centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Wantage
Wantage has more restaurants and bars per resident than 93% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Wantage and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wantage, month by month
Wantage sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 40, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 40° | 30° | 20° |
| April | 64° | 50° | 38° |
| July | 87° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 68° | 54° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Wantage
The nearest airport, New York Stewart International, is about 33 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Newark Liberty International, about 44 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wantage
Schools across Wantage average a C−, better than 28% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hardyston Township Elementary SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Frankford Township SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Wantage Elementary SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hardyston Township Middle SchoolC− · 29% proficient
- Sussex Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- Glen Meadow Middle SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Port Jervis Senior High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Delaware Valley HsA · 79% proficient
- Wallkill Valley Regional High SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wantage school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wantage 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 Wantage against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wantage
Is Wantage a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wantage ranks 10,200th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, fast internet, and low crime, and lowest on state finances and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wantage expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $382,490. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $104,658 median income, cost of living beats 79% of towns.
Is Wantage safe?
Yes, Wantage is safer than 91% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $120 per resident a year.
Compare Wantage with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wantage. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wantage 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.
Wantage detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wantage: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wantage: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wantage: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wantage: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wantage 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.