Best PlacesBrandywine, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brandywine, 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.
Brandywine ranks 11,963rd 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 Brandywine
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.
Brandywine's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brandywine ranks high
- Household income$163,515 median, better than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 91% of towns
Where Brandywine ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute41.8 minutes each way, better than only 4% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brandywine
A household needs to earn about $147,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brandywine home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $163,515, 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 Brandywine's effective rate of 0.97%, 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 Brandywine
Brandywine runs older than the country, though fewer residents are over 65 than the national share, 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 Brandywine.
Who works in Brandywine, and how
Work in Brandywine centers on public administration and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Brandywine
Brandywine has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of towns and more parkland per resident than 97% of towns. The coast is about 31 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Brandywine and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brandywine, month by month
Brandywine sees roughly 62 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 36° | 27° |
| April | 70° | 57° | 44° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 72° | 60° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Brandywine
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 15 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 Brandywine
Schools across Brandywine average a D, better than 9% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Accokeek AcademyC− · 29% proficient
- Mattaponi ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- Baden ElementaryD+ · 22% proficient
Top middle schools
- John Hanson Middle SchoolD · 21% proficient
- Gwynn Park MiddleD− · 16% proficient
Top high schools
- Gwynn Park HighC− · 29% proficient
- Frederick Douglass HighC− · 26% proficient
- Thomas Stone High SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brandywine school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brandywine 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 Brandywine against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brandywine
Is Brandywine a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brandywine ranks 11,963rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on high incomes, what local pay buys, and big-city access, and lowest on taxes and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brandywine expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $551,260. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $163,515 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Brandywine safe?
Brandywine is safer than 23% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $427 per resident a year.
Compare Brandywine with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brandywine. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brandywine 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.
Brandywine detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brandywine: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brandywine: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brandywine: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brandywine: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brandywine 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.