Bernards Township Named 39th Best Place To Live In New Jersey

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — If you decided to settle down in Bernards Township, you made a good choice, according to Niche. The website gave the township an A-plus and named it the 39th-best place to live in New Jersey.

Niche — primarily known for its college and school rankings — generated lists of Best Places to Live for the seventh straight year. The rankings use data from the U.S. Census, FBI, Basic Life Support and Centers for Disease Control, along with user-generated reviews. The company also considers factors such as affordability, the local housing market, neighborhood diversity, area public schools and walkability.

Niche named Bernards Township the best place to raise a family in Somerset County and gave the town the following grades:

• public schools: A+
• housing: B
• good for families: A+
• jobs: B+
• cost of living: C
• outdoor activities: A
• crime and safety: B+
• nightlife: B-
• diversity: B+
• weather: B-
• health and fitness: A
• commute: B

Here are the top places to live in New Jersey, according to Niche:

1. Princeton Junction
2. Princeton
3. Ridgewood
4. Mountain Lakes
5. Upper Montclair
6. Princeton Meadows
7. Ho-Ho-Kus
8. New Providence
9. Glen Rock
10. Monmouth Junction

Find the full list here. For what it's worth, Niche's top place to live in the nation — Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, is only 1 hour, 40 minutes away from Basking Ridge.

The rankings hold arguably new significance because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has put more Americans in remote-work environment. Twenty percent of employed adults worked from home before the COVID-19 outbreak, while 71 percent currently work from home, according to a Pew Research Center report from December.

Fifty four percent of those surveyed want to work from home after the pandemic ends, according to the Pew Research Center. But the longterm effects of how many will get the opportunity aren't immediately clear.

“In the past year, many people have become more mobile than ever before," said Niche CEO Luke Skurman. "Especially if they’re able to work remotely, people are asking themselves where they really want to live. Our rankings are designed to help our users find the next place they want to call home based on their unique priorities."

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