Best PlacesBowie, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bowie, 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.
Bowie ranks 853rd of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bowie
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.
Bowie's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bowie ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 95% of cities
- Household income$157,669 median, better than 93% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 92% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 88% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than 88% of cities
Where Bowie ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 4% of cities
- Short commute35.3 minutes each way, better than only 5% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 14% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 16% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Bowie
A household needs to earn about $143,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bowie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $157,669, 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 Bowie's effective rate of 1.12%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bowie
Bowie runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bowie.
Who works in Bowie, and how
Work in Bowie centers on public administration and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 67%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Bowie
Bowie has more parkland per resident than 94% of cities. The coast is about 23 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Bowie and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bowie, month by month
Bowie sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 34° | 27° |
| April | 67° | 54° | 43° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 68° | 56° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Bowie
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 16 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 Bowie
Schools across Bowie average a C, better than 24% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Heather Hills ElementaryB+ · 54% proficient
- Whitehall ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
- Tulip Grove ElementaryC− · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Benjamin Tasker Middle SchoolC− · 31% proficient
- Samuel Ogle MiddleC− · 28% proficient
- Ernest Everett Just MiddleD− · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Bowie HighB · 47% proficient
- Charles Herbert Flowers HighB− · 42% proficient
- Duval HighC+ · 36% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bowie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bowie 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 Bowie against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Bowie suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of cities and 27% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Bowie
Is Bowie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bowie ranks 853rd of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on few empty homes, high incomes, and a stable housing market, 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 Bowie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $522,737. The overall cost of living runs about 16% above the national average. Set against a $157,669 median income, cost of living beats 88% of cities.
Is Bowie safe?
Bowie is safer than 16% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $451 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bowie?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 27. That works out to about 73 pleasant days a year, more than 33% of cities.
Is Bowie good for families?
Schools beat 24% of cities, crime safety beats 16%, and childcare runs $1,268 a month.
Compare Bowie with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bowie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bowie 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.
Bowie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bowie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bowie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bowie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bowie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bowie 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.