Best PlacesCroom, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Croom, 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.
Croom ranks 10,376th 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 Croom
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.
Croom's strengths and weaknesses
Where Croom ranks high
- Household income$176,903 median, better than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 92% of towns
Where Croom ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute44.7 minutes each way, better than only 2% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Croom
A household needs to earn about $159,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Croom home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $176,903, 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 Croom's effective rate of 0.92%, 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 Croom
Croom runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Croom.
Who works in Croom, and how
Work in Croom centers on public administration and arts & entertainment. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 69%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Croom
The coast is about 28 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Croom, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Croom, month by month
Croom 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 Croom
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 17 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 Croom
Schools across Croom average a D+, better than 10% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mattaponi ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- Baden ElementaryD+ · 22% proficient
- Brandywine ElementaryD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- James Madison MiddleD− · 18% proficient
- Gwynn Park MiddleD− · 16% proficient
Top high schools
- Gwynn Park HighC− · 29% proficient
- Frederick Douglass HighC− · 26% proficient
- Dr. Henry A. Wise Jr. HighC− · 26% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Croom school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Croom 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 Croom against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Croom
Is Croom a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Croom ranks 10,376th 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 Croom expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $597,099. The overall cost of living runs about 15% above the national average. Set against a $176,903 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Croom safe?
Croom is safer than 13% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $514 per resident a year.
Compare Croom with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Croom. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Croom 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.
Croom detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Croom: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Croom: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Croom: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Croom: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Croom 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.