Best PlacesCliffs City, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cliffs City, 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.
Cliffs City ranks 36,859th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and crime is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Cliffs City
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.
Cliffs City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cliffs City ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
- QuietBetter than 84% of towns
Where Cliffs City ranks low
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% 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 Cliffs City
A household needs to earn about $104,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cliffs City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $83,229, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Cliffs City's effective rate of 0.82%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Cliffs City
Cliffs City 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 Cliffs City.
Who works in Cliffs City, and how
Work in Cliffs City centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 69%
- Work from home 29%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Cliffs City
The coast is about 31 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Cliffs City, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cliffs City, month by month
Cliffs City sees roughly 95 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 37° | 31° |
| April | 67° | 57° | 49° |
| July | 90° | 81° | 74° |
| October | 70° | 62° | 55° |
Flying in and out of Cliffs City
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 28 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 Cliffs City
Schools across Cliffs City average a C−, better than 19% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rock Hall ElementaryD · 20% proficient
- H. H. Garnett ElementaryD− · 14% proficient
Top middle schools
- Centreville Middle SchoolC− · 27% proficient
- Kent County Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Queen Anne's County High SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Kent County HighB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cliffs City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cliffs City 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 Cliffs City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cliffs City
Is Cliffs City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cliffs City ranks 36,859th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, health care access, and an educated workforce, and lowest on crime and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cliffs City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $397,100. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $83,229 median income, cost of living beats 81% of towns.
Is Cliffs City safe?
Cliffs City is safer than 0% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,396 per resident a year.
Compare Cliffs City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cliffs City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cliffs City 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.
Cliffs City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cliffs City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cliffs City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cliffs City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cliffs City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cliffs City 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.