Best PlacesCarney, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carney, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Carney ranks 19,244th 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 Carney
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.
Carney's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carney ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 91% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 89% of towns
Where Carney ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,377 a month, better than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carney
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carney home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $90,337; 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 Carney's effective rate of 1.04%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Carney
Carney 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 Carney.
Who works in Carney, and how
Work in Carney centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Carney
Carney has more restaurants and bars per resident than 70% of towns. The coast is about 16 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Carney and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Carney, month by month
Carney sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 36° | 30° |
| April | 65° | 56° | 47° |
| July | 88° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 69° | 60° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Carney
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 17 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 Carney
Schools across Carney average a C−, better than 22% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hampton ElementaryB · 49% proficient
- Seven Oaks ElementaryC · 34% proficient
- Harford Hills ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ridgely MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Perry Hall MiddleC+ · 36% proficient
- Pine Grove MiddleC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Perry Hall HighC+ · 35% proficient
- Loch Raven HighC · 30% proficient
- Parkville HighD− · 17% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carney school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carney 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 Carney against the other 50,332 towns.
Who Carney suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 80% of towns, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Carney
Is Carney a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carney ranks 19,244th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, transit, and biking, and lowest on taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carney expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $339,268. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $90,337 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Carney safe?
Carney is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $407 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Carney?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 30. That works out to about 85 pleasant days a year, more than 54% of towns.
Is Carney good for families?
Schools beat 22% of towns, crime safety beats 19%, and childcare runs $1,377 a month.
Compare Carney with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carney. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carney 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.
Carney detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carney: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carney: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carney: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carney: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carney 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.