Hometown pride is a powerful thing, a trigger for some of our strongest emotions. The town where we live is the place we most closely associate with life’s milestones: Settling down, raising a family, attending graduations. We take pride in our home, our street, our neighborhood. We cheer for the local teams, support our local businesses, share concerns for our local men and women in uniform overseas.
Then there are the practical concerns: The quality of our schools, the value of our homes, the burden of our taxes. Every two years, New Jersey Monthly endeavors to rate New Jersey towns based on those and other tangible factors. Inevitably, the results are pleasing to some, a disappointment to others.
Our goal in creating the Top Towns chart is to reflect the dynamics of the marketplace and the desirability of each town, based on objective data. What we can’t take into account are all those subjective factors—like the beauty of our neighborhoods, or the friendliness of our neighbors.
If your town is among those in our Top 100, congratulations! It’s time to puff out your chest and take stock of all the factors that make your town one of our “Best Places to Live.”