Best PlacesBel Alton, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bel Alton, 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 Alton ranks 7,023rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on high incomes by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bel Alton
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 Alton's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bel Alton ranks high
- Household income$162,449 median, better than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 90% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of towns
Where Bel Alton 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$1,253 a month, better than only 12% of towns
- Short commute35.1 minutes each way, better than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bel Alton
A household needs to earn about $139,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bel Alton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $162,449, 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 Bel Alton's effective rate of 1.01%, 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 Alton
Bel Alton runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bel Alton.
Who works in Bel Alton, and how
Work in Bel Alton centers on public administration and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Bel Alton
The coast is about 10 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Bel Alton, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bel Alton, month by month
Bel Alton sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 37° | 28° |
| April | 72° | 59° | 47° |
| July | 91° | 81° | 72° |
| October | 73° | 62° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Bel Alton
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 27 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.0 million passengers in 2025, with 128 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Bel Alton
Schools across Bel Alton average a C+, better than 49% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Walter J. Mitchell Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Piccowaxen Middle SchoolC− · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- La Plata High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
- Maurice J. Mcdonough High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bel Alton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bel Alton 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 Alton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bel Alton
Is Bel Alton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bel Alton ranks 7,023rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, what local pay buys, and big-city access, 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 Alton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $517,342. The overall cost of living runs about 11% above the national average. Set against a $162,449 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Bel Alton safe?
Bel Alton is safer than 27% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $385 per resident a year.
Compare Bel Alton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bel Alton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bel Alton 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 Alton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bel Alton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bel Alton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bel Alton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bel Alton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bel Alton 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.