{"id":318867,"date":"2026-08-11T19:06:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318867\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T19:06:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T19:06:07","slug":"new-jersey-ranked-second-best-state-to-live-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/318867\/","title":{"rendered":"New Jersey ranked second-best state to live in"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Jersey is no longer the \u201carmpit of the nation.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, the Garden State ranks No. 2 among the best states to live in the US, driven by strong scores in safety, healthcare and education, according to a new WalletHub study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The state boasts the lowest crime rate in the country, and ranks high in quality of life, health and education. It also has some of the highest-performing public school districts in the country.<\/p>\n

New Jersey ranks as the No. 2 best state to live in. bartsadowski \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Shore homes along the lake between Bradley Beach and Belmar. vin \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

Despite its notoriously high property taxes and cost of living, New Jersey\u2019s high median wages; top-tier health care; and proximity to major economic hubs like New York City and Philadelphia make it a draw, per WalletHub\u2019s evaluation of all 50 states across 51 key metrics.<\/p>\n

Broker Lisa Poggi, who leads Douglas Elliman\u2019s New Jersey division, told The Post the state earned its bad reputation from the two-hour drive along the I-95\/Turnpike corridor past Newark Airport, industrial docks, ports and oil refineries.<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing looks scenic from that vantage point,\u201d she told The Post. \u201cBut you go 40 minutes west of the Turnpike, and don\u2019t forget \u2014 it is called the Garden State for a reason.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most out-of-staters only know New Jersey from the two-hour drive along the I-95\/Turnpike corridor. Bloomberg via Getty Images<\/p>\n

New Jersey offers great beaches to visit in the summer. Getty Images<\/p>\n

New Jersey offers a rare geographic sweet spot, Poggi said, where residents don\u2019t have to choose between the beach, the mountains or Broadway theater \u2014 they can hit all three in a single weekend while retaining \u201ca lot more elbow room\u201d than in New York City.<\/p>\n

New Jersey, with its 59.41 total score, is bested only by Idaho, which notched the top spot with a score of 60.15.<\/p>\n

The Gem State claims a low median real estate tax rate, the eighth-highest homeownership rate, and the country\u2019s highest median income growth. It is also the third-safest state in the nation, behind Wyoming, laying claim to the lowest property crime rate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

WalletHub<\/p>\n

Rounding out the top five best states are Wisconsin, with a score of 59.32, thanks to its affordable housing market; Massachusetts, securing 59.28 with some of the country\u2019s lowest homeownership rates; and New Hampshire at 58.89, which is regarded well in economy, education, health and safety.<\/p>\n

At the other end of the spectrum, New Mexico came in dead last with a 41.42 score. It rates as the most unsafe state in the country and holds some of the lowest scores for education and healthcare, per WalletHub.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Jersey is no longer the \u201carmpit of the nation.\u201d In fact, the Garden State ranks No. 2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1586,433,17409,27524,1066,21996,9,11,10,49,51,50,3610,25042,32784,1491,3006],"class_list":["post-318867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-affordability","tag-affordable-housing","tag-hoboken","tag-idaho","tag-new-jersey","tag-new-mexico","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-public-health","tag-quality-of-life","tag-rankings","tag-real-estate","tag-residential-real-estate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}