Best PlacesWaterbury, CT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Waterbury metro, 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.
Photo by Daniel Case, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Waterbury ranks 66th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $104,468, wages outrun the cost of living, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are cell coverage, state finances, and an overheated housing market.
The best neighborhoods in the Waterbury metro
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.
Waterbury's strengths and weaknesses
Waterbury ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Tree cover is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Civic engagement and health care access follow.
The one real hole is cell coverage, near the bottom of the country. State finances and an overheated housing market also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Waterbury ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 98% of metro areas
Where Waterbury ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,407 a month, better than only 9% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Waterbury
A household needs to earn about $108,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Waterbury home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $104,468; 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 Waterbury's effective rate of 1.61%, 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 Waterbury
Waterbury 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 Waterbury.
Who works in Waterbury, and how
Work in Waterbury centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Waterbury
Waterbury has more restaurants and bars per resident than 65% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 77% of metro areas. The coast is about 51 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Waterbury and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Waterbury growing, and who is moving in?
Waterbury has grown about 2% over the last decade.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Waterbury go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Waterbury, month by month
Waterbury sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 38, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 38° | 30° | 21° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Waterbury
The nearest airport, Tweed/New Haven, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Bradley International, about 32 miles away.
The best schools in and around Waterbury
Schools across Waterbury average a B, better than 71% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Middlebury Elementary SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Maloney Interdistrict Magnet SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Rotella Interdistrict Magnet SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Memorial Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
- Tyrrell Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Aces At ChaseC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Pomperaug Regional High SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- W. F. Kaynor Technical High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Waterbury Career AcademyC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Waterbury school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Waterbury 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 Waterbury against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Waterbury suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 89% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 14% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Waterbury
Is Waterbury a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Waterbury ranks 66th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on tree cover, civic engagement, and health care access, and lowest on cell coverage and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Waterbury expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $371,450. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $104,468 median income, cost of living beats 89% of metro areas.
Is Waterbury safe?
Yes, Waterbury is safer than 85% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $194 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Waterbury?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 38 with lows near 21. That works out to about 74 pleasant days a year, more than 31% of metro areas.
Is Waterbury good for families?
Schools beat 71% of metro areas, crime safety beats 85%, and childcare runs $1,407 a month.
Is Waterbury good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 89% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 98% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Waterbury with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Waterbury. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Waterbury 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.
Waterbury detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Waterbury: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Waterbury: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Waterbury: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Waterbury: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Waterbury 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.