Best PlacesCedar Grove, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cedar Grove, 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.
Cedar Grove ranks 1,935th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on population health by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cedar Grove
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.
Cedar Grove's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cedar Grove ranks high
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$226,943 median, better than 99% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
Where Cedar Grove ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,745 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 59 pleasant days a year, better than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cedar Grove
A household needs to earn about $189,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cedar Grove home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $226,943, 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 Cedar Grove's effective rate of 0.87%, 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 Cedar Grove
Cedar Grove 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 Cedar Grove.
Who works in Cedar Grove, and how
Work in Cedar Grove centers on professional & technical and public administration. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 52%
- Work from home 42%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Cedar Grove
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Cedar Grove.
What the weather is like in Cedar Grove, month by month
Cedar Grove sees roughly 59 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 25. The comfortable stretch runs April through June and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 34° | 25° |
| April | 69° | 55° | 42° |
| July | 90° | 77° | 66° |
| October | 71° | 58° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Cedar Grove
Washington Dulles International sits about 15 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 13.9 million passengers in 2025, with 200 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Cedar Grove
Schools across Cedar Grove average a B+, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Spark M. Matsunaga ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
- Monocacy ElementaryB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- John H. Poole MiddleB · 45% proficient
- Kingsview MiddleB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Poolesville HighA · 79% proficient
- Northwest HighA− · 67% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cedar Grove school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cedar Grove 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 Cedar Grove against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cedar Grove
Is Cedar Grove a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cedar Grove ranks 1,935th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on population health, what local pay buys, and high incomes, 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 Cedar Grove expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $716,758. The overall cost of living runs about 20% above the national average. Set against a $226,943 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Cedar Grove safe?
Cedar Grove is safer than 25% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $417 per resident a year.
Compare Cedar Grove with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cedar Grove. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cedar Grove 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.
Cedar Grove detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cedar Grove: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cedar Grove: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cedar Grove: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cedar Grove: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cedar Grove 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.