Pennington, NJ

The affordability dashboard for Pennington, NJ aggregates Census ACS 5-Year Estimates across 1 ZIP code covering 12,929 residents, then layers in county-level federal data to produce an overall grade of A- (80/100). The headline inputs are median household income of $175,573, median home value of $573,000, median rent of $2,004 per month, and 70.6% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher. These four metrics alone explain most of the variance between city dashboards.

Cross-agency feeds widen the picture beyond Census demographics. HUD publishes a Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom in this county at $1,950 per month (studio $1,344, 1BR $1,545, 3BR $2,338, 4BR $2,670). Department of Labor data lists infant center-based childcare at $15,294 per year, consuming 9% of the local median household income.

Reading the overall grade requires reading all seven dimensions together. The score weights Income 20%, Safety 20%, Housing 15%, Rent 15%, Education 10%, Commute 10%, and Childcare 10%, with each sub-score benchmarked against national percentiles rather than state averages — so the grade is genuinely comparable across any city in the country. Strengths visible in the raw data for Pennington, NJ include income, education, rent, childcare. Unemployment currently reads 3.4% and poverty 3.7% — numbers worth keeping alongside the headline grade.