Best PlacesBel Air, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bel Air, 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.
Bel Air ranks 4,914th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bel Air
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.
Bel Air's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bel Air ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 95% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
Where Bel Air 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
- Cheap childcare$1,304 a month, better than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bel Air
A household needs to earn about $116,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bel Air home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $109,826; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Bel Air's effective rate of 0.89%, 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 Bel Air
Bel Air runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bel Air.
Who works in Bel Air, and how
Work in Bel Air centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Bel Air
Bel Air has more restaurants and bars per resident than 91% of towns and more parkland per resident than 86% of towns. The coast is about 22 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bel Air and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bel Air, month by month
Bel Air sees roughly 65 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 35° | 26° |
| April | 67° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 89° | 80° | 68° |
| October | 70° | 60° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Bel Air
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 31 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.3 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Bel Air
Schools across Bel Air average a B, better than 70% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bel Air ElementaryB · 46% proficient
- Youths Benefit ElementaryB · 44% proficient
- Homestead/wakefield ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Southampton MiddleB · 45% proficient
- Fallston Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Patterson Mill Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Harford Technical HighA+ · 81% proficient
- Fallston HighA · 77% proficient
- Bel Air HighA · 69% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bel Air school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bel Air 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 Bel Air against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bel Air
Is Bel Air a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bel Air ranks 4,914th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, transit, and walkability, 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 Bel Air expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $438,248. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $109,826 median income, cost of living beats 91% of towns.
Is Bel Air safe?
Yes, Bel Air is safer than 66% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $263 per resident a year.
Compare Bel Air with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bel Air. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bel Air 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.
Bel Air detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bel Air: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bel Air: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bel Air: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bel Air: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bel Air 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.