Best PlacesCurtis Bay, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Curtis Bay, 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.
Curtis Bay ranks 15,183rd 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 Curtis Bay
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.
Curtis Bay's strengths and weaknesses
Where Curtis Bay ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 92% of towns
Where Curtis Bay ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Curtis Bay
A household needs to earn about $110,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Curtis Bay home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $108,689; 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 Curtis Bay's effective rate of 1.06%, 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 Curtis Bay
Curtis Bay runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Curtis Bay.
Who works in Curtis Bay, and how
Work in Curtis Bay centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Curtis Bay
Curtis Bay has more restaurants and bars per resident than 75% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. The coast is about 3 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Curtis Bay and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Curtis Bay, month by month
Curtis Bay sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 47, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 47° | 36° | 26° |
| April | 71° | 57° | 44° |
| July | 92° | 80° | 69° |
| October | 73° | 60° | 48° |
Flying in and out of Curtis Bay
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 6 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 Curtis Bay
Schools across Curtis Bay average a D+, better than 11% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Monarch Global Academy Pcs Laurel CampusC− · 29% proficient
- Elmer A. Henderson: A Johns Hopkins PartnershipF · 8% proficient
Top middle schools
- Severna Park MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
- Lindale MiddleD+ · 26% proficient
- Brooklyn Park MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
Top high schools
- Severna Park HighA+ · 81% proficient
- North County HighB · 47% proficient
- Northeast HighB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Curtis Bay school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Curtis Bay 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 Curtis Bay against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Curtis Bay
Is Curtis Bay a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Curtis Bay ranks 15,183rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, transit, and biking, and lowest on taxes and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Curtis Bay expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $404,674. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $108,689 median income, cost of living beats 93% of towns.
Is Curtis Bay safe?
Curtis Bay is safer than 24% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $661 per resident a year.
Compare Curtis Bay with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Curtis Bay. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Curtis Bay 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.
Curtis Bay detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Curtis Bay: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Curtis Bay: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Curtis Bay: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Curtis Bay: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Curtis Bay 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.