Best PlacesAccident, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Accident, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Accident ranks 35,896th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Accident
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.
Accident's strengths and weaknesses
Where Accident ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 89% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 86% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 84% of towns
- Short commute22.2 minutes each way, better than 79% of towns
Where Accident ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Accident
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Accident home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $62,652, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Accident's effective rate of 0.71%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Accident
Accident runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Accident.
Who works in Accident, and how
Work in Accident centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Accident
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Accident.
What the weather is like in Accident, month by month
Accident sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 76 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 26° | 20° |
| April | 57° | 47° | 39° |
| July | 76° | 68° | 62° |
| October | 59° | 50° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Accident
The nearest airport, Morgantown Municipal/Walter L Bill Hart Field, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Pittsburgh International, about 77 miles away.
The best schools in and around Accident
Schools across Accident average a C+, better than 41% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Accident ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
- Grantsville ElementaryD− · 14% proficient
- Friendsville ElementaryD− · 12% proficient
Top middle schools
- Northern Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Northern Garrett High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Accident school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Accident 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 Accident against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Accident
Is Accident a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Accident ranks 35,896th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, heat safety, and fast internet, and lowest on taxes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Accident expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $229,927. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $62,652 median income, cost of living beats 29% of towns.
Is Accident safe?
Accident is safer than 13% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $494 per resident a year.
Compare Accident with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Accident. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Accident 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.
Accident detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Accident: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Accident: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Accident: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Accident: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Accident detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.