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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-BRADLEY-BEACH-NJ · Bradley Beach, NJ 4,264 pop · income 74th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Bradley Beach
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Bradley Beach on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Normandy · lowest
33,421
Normandy · lowest
33,421 median HH income
13.4% of the leader · rank #1
Park · near
94,716
Park · near
94,716 median HH income
37.9% of the leader · rank #2
Alta · near
94,718
Alta · near
94,718 median HH income
37.9% of the leader · rank #3
Manteca · near
94,718
Manteca · near
94,718 median HH income
37.9% of the leader · rank #4
Bradley Beach · this city
94,722
Bradley Beach · this city
94,722 median HH income
37.9% of the leader · rank #5
Sonterra · near
94,728
Sonterra · near
94,728 median HH income
37.9% of the leader · rank #6
Ho-Ho-Kus · highest
250,001
Ho-Ho-Kus · highest
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Bradley Beach on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 4,264.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Bradley Beach - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Bradley Beach lands in the 74th percentile for household income and the 30th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
74th
percentile, household income
96th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
30th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Bradley Beach, NJ
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 4,264 residents in Bradley Beach, a small town within New Jersey. The typical household in Bradley Beach brings in $94,722 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.4%. Home values in Bradley Beach run a median of $857,200, and the median resident age is 46.4 years. Educational attainment runs 65.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 66.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 21 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Growing), up 5% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2072.4 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
New Jersey carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, New Jersey scores 108.8 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,132 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New Jersey's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). Commute times here average 23.3 minutes, with 57.1% driving alone and 24.4% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 90.8 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Bradley Beach's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from housing and income to population change to reported crime to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Bradley Beach, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Bradley Beach?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 9.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Is Bradley Beach growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -11 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 21 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Bradley Beach?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2072.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 9% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Bradley Beach?
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Medford Lakes (4,267 residents, $151,190 income); Westville (4,285 residents, $78,333 income); Holiday City South (4,294 residents, $55,298 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Highland Beach, FL (4,264 residents); Boyertown, PA (4,264 residents); Ligonier, IN (4,263 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Bradley Beach?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 57.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.3 minutes.
Public transit
4.8%
Work from home
24.4%
Drive alone
57.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,490 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Bradley Beach?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 65.2% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
Matched public schools
1
Bachelor's degree+
65.2%
Poverty estimate
6.4%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 6.4% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
108.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New Jersey average
B-
City profile score · Bradley Beach, NJ
65/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A+
65.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B
$94,722
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C
6.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
108.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bradley Beach profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 95/100 (A+) · 65.2%
Household income: 74/100 (B) · $94,722
Poverty rate: 56/100 (C) · 6.4%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where Bradley Beach sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Bradley Beach's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Bradley Beach highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Bradley Beach, NJ (this city): home $857,200, crime 2,072/100k
Normandy, MO : home $91,400, crime 3,375/100k
Bristow, OK : home $110,800, crime 2,371/100k
Medford Lakes, NJ : home $368,200, crime 419/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Bradley Beach compare to other US cities?
Where Bradley Beach sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income74% higher than other cities
Home value96% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety30% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just New Jersey and the picture shifts: Bradley Beach ranks #191 of 238 New Jersey cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Bradley Beach against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to New Jersey only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
New Jersey-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Bradley Beach near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Bradley Beach ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Bradley Beach only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#415 of 659
37th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#57 of 672
92nd percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#181 of 680
73rd percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#117 of 686
83rd percentile in New Jersey
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within New Jersey only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
74th percentile nationally for median household income · 30th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Bradley Beach's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Bradley Beach's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Bradley Beach's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$857,2004th percentilemore affordable than 4% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Bradley Beach's home-value-to-income ratio: 9.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,247 of 15,516
More affordable than 2% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#11,160 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 9.0×, Bradley Beach sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,247 of 15,516 and #11,160 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$94,722Bradley Beach, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Bradley Beach, NJ median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Bradley Beach, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)65.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)66.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,264
Median Income
$94,722
Median Home Value
$857,200
Median Age
46.4
Poverty Rate
6.4%
Labor force participation
66.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
65.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2072.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2072.4
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Bradley Beach's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,174 residents
2021
4,179 residents
2022
4,161 residents
2023
4,132 residents
2024
4,149 residents
2025
4,163 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Growing
Total Permits (2024)
21
housing units authorized
Single-Family
21
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
20
17
3
$3.5M
2020
24
21
3
$6.7M
2021
22
19
3
$6.5M
2022
25
21
4
$8.1M
2023
26
20
6
$7.5M
2024
21
21
0
$7.3M
Permit volume increased 5% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.3 minutes
Drive Alone
57.1%
Carpool
7.7%
Public Transit
4.8%
Walk
2.9%
Work from Home
24.4%
Other
3.1%
Based on 2,490 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
New Jersey statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $275
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across New Jersey at $275 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $60 ).
These are New Jersey statewide averages, not a meter reading for Bradley Beach. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
New Jersey's BEA cost-of-living index is 108.8 (Well Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Bradley Beach is $2,132/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to New Jersey statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 90.8 / 100 (Very High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a New Jersey statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Bradley Beach sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Bradley Beach compares to similar-size New Jersey cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.