NJMonthly has released their bi-annual list of Best Places to Live. Honestly, at first I wasn’t going to write about this. I figured NJMonthly was going to spread the word on their own. Plus, it was going to be re-posted on just about every NJ blog there is (and it has been), and I just wasn’t sure yet another town ranking was important to people.  But the data does seem legit and I did find some of the rankings surprising. So, on that note, lets get this ROLL CALL going!  Town rankings of note and interest… Lets go!

5 Bernards, 6 Berkeley Heights, 8 New Providence, 12 Mountainside, 13 Millburn, 17 Long Hill, 20 Livingston, 28 Summit, 34 Westfield, 38 Glen Ridge, 40 Cranford, 73 Clark, 87 Fanwood, 92 Watchung, 97 South Orange, 127 Scotch Plains, 128 Garwood, 141 Maplewood, 166 Montclair

So obviously I am happy to report that both Cranford and Westfield broke the top 40! As did a number of our other Union County neighbors! But I think what may even be more notable is that both Mountainside and New Providence were included in their “16 Hot Towns” section of this months issue. Sometimes overshadowed by other Union County towns, both Mountainside and New Providence do have a lot to offer. So if you are looking for real estate in this area, they are definitely worth considering.

I do have the full list of 513 NJ towns if you’d like to dig a little deeper. And if you are curious as to how the rankings were done, they used “data that reflects factors such as taxes, home values, school performance, crime and commute time.”  More info on methodology can be found here.