Haddonfield Among NJ's 'Best' Places To Live, Per New Rankings

HADDONFIELD, NJ — Haddonfield is one of the "best" places to live in New Jersey, while Haddon Township earned an "A-" grade, according to the online portal Niche.

Niche.com is designed to connect students to schools and communities. The platform released the 2023 Best Places to Live in America list on Monday, along with rankings by state.

Haddonfield received an A-plus overall, ranking third among all Camden County communities. Niche gave Haddon Township an A-minus.

Niche creates the annual Best Places to Live rankings by using data from sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, FBI, Bureau of Labor Statistics and CDC, combined with millions of resident reviews. The company considers factors such as affordability, the local housing market, neighborhood diversity, area public schools, walkability and more.

Here's a breakdown of Haddonfield's grades from Niche:

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

Haddon Township received the following marks:

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

Niche has released Best Places to Live rankings for nearly a decade, including more than 18,000 communities in its latest iteration. According to Niche, the lists help Americans make key life decisions on where to live and go to school.

"For almost 10 years now, our Best Places to Live rankings have helped people find a new neighborhood to call home based on what matters most to them, whether that’s affordable housing, easy access to amenities or excellent local schools," Niche CEO Luke Skurman said in a statement. "We are proud to be a trusted resource for families, homebuyers, professionals and retirees alike in their research."

But lists that rank communities and school systems often face criticism, including from the FBI itself. The federal agency has a longstanding policy against using its crime data to rank locales.

"Data users should not rank locales because there are many factors that cause the nature and type of crime to vary from place to place," the FBI says. "UCR (uniform crime reporting) statistics include only jurisdictional population figures along with reported crime, clearance, or arrest data. Rankings ignore the uniqueness of each locale."

Niche's rankings also put heavy emphasis on comparing schools, including its annual list of Best Schools and Districts. But critics of school rankings have framed them as reductive and, in some cases, harmful. U.S. News & World Report began ranking colleges in 1983, and other media outlets and platforms have since picked up the trend of ranking schools and districts.

"The reason they started doing it back in the early 1980s under the guidance of a man named Mel Elfin, was because it was a brilliant business strategy," James Fallows, a former U.S. News editor, told NPR in 2021. "By appealing to the human desire for rankings and knowing where you stand and where somebody else stands, they were able to make a very strong part of their business, which is now basically the only part of their business."

Additionally, school ratings have the power to drive segregation, contends Jack Schneider, an associate professor of education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

"There’s evidence that this is already happening via websites like GreatSchools.org and Niche.com," Schneider wrote in 2021 for WBUR. "Privileged parents compete against each other in the real estate market to buy homes near 'good' schools, while lower-rated schools suffer reputational harm and serve increasingly disadvantaged students."

But if you want to check out the nation's best place to live, according to Niche, it's only about an hour from the Haddon area. Chesterbrook, Pennsylvania, topped the national list. Meanwhile, Princeton Junction led New Jersey's rankings.

See Niche's 2023 Best Places to Live in America, and read about the website's methodology.