Best Places21647, MD Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 21647, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

21647 ranks 8,998th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.

#8,998
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 21647

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 21647 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

21647's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Low crime
Top 3%Quiet
Top 5%Health care access
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 21647 with other zip codes.

Where 21647 ranks high

  • Crime safetyBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • QuietBetter than 97% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of zip codes
  • Tree shadeBetter than 91% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 89% of zip codes

Where 21647 ranks low

  • Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 2% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 5% of zip codes
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 6% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than only 6% of zip codes
  • Low vacancyBetter than only 8% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 21647

A household needs to earn about $156,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 21647 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $110,481, so buying stretches a typical household.

Income to buy the median home
$156,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$3,645
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $607,400 home

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$3,097
Property tax$346
Homeowners insurance$202

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 21647's effective rate of 0.68%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.


Who lives in 21647

21647 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
60
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
40%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.0
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1810%
18 to 3412%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6420%
65 and older40%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 21647.


Who works in 21647, and how

Work in 21647 centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
18%
above the national average
Unemployment
1.2%
below the national average
Job growth
+3.3%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing17%
Health care & social12%
Professional & technical10%
Admin & support services8%
Retail trade7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 74%
  • Work from home 18%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 8%

Life in 21647

The coast is about 3 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across 21647, which the map shows.

To the coast
3 min
drive to the nearest ocean beaches

What the weather is like in 21647, month by month

21647 sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January45°38°31°
April68°58°49°
July89°80°72°
October71°62°54°

Flying in and out of 21647

Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 33 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.3 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
BWI
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 33 miles
Airport size
Large hub
26th-busiest in the US, 114 nonstop destinations
Average drive
47 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 21647

Schools across 21647 average a C, better than 33% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 21647 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


21647 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 21647 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 21647

Is 21647 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 21647 ranks 8,998th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on low crime, quiet, and health care access, and lowest on taxes and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 21647 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $607,400. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $110,481 median income, cost of living beats 89% of zip codes.

Is 21647 safe?

Yes, 21647 is safer than 99% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $125 per resident a year.


Compare 21647 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 21647. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 21647 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

21647 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 21647: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 21647: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 21647: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 21647: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

21647 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.