Best PlacesWildwood Crest, NJ Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wildwood Crest, 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.
Wildwood Crest ranks 23,013th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wildwood Crest
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.
Wildwood Crest's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wildwood Crest ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
Where Wildwood Crest ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,358 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wildwood Crest
A household needs to earn about $170,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wildwood Crest home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $103,015, 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 Wildwood Crest's effective rate of 0.89%, 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 Wildwood Crest
Wildwood Crest 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 Wildwood Crest.
Who works in Wildwood Crest, and how
Work in Wildwood Crest centers on education and professional & technical. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Wildwood Crest
Wildwood Crest has more restaurants and bars per resident than 94% of towns. The coast is about 1 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Wildwood Crest and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wildwood Crest, month by month
Wildwood Crest sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 46, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 46° | 37° | 29° |
| April | 65° | 54° | 45° |
| July | 88° | 78° | 69° |
| October | 71° | 61° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Wildwood Crest
The nearest airport, Atlantic City International, is about 36 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Philadelphia International, about 66 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wildwood Crest
Schools across Wildwood Crest average a C−, better than 26% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Crest Memorial SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sandman Consolidated SchoolD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Lower Cape May Regional High SchoolC · 30% proficient
- Wildwood High SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wildwood Crest school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wildwood Crest 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 Wildwood Crest against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wildwood Crest
Is Wildwood Crest a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wildwood Crest ranks 23,013th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, biking, and cell coverage, and lowest on an overheated housing market and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wildwood Crest expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $642,395. The overall cost of living runs about 21% above the national average. Set against a $103,015 median income, cost of living beats 62% of towns.
Is Wildwood Crest safe?
Wildwood Crest is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $318 per resident a year.
Compare Wildwood Crest with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wildwood Crest. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wildwood Crest 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.
Wildwood Crest detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wildwood Crest: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wildwood Crest: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wildwood Crest: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wildwood Crest: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wildwood Crest 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.