Best PlacesGarrett Park, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Garrett Park, 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.
Garrett Park ranks 2,640th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Garrett Park
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.
Garrett Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Garrett Park ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$170,903 median, better than 98% of towns
Where Garrett Park ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,745 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Garrett Park
A household needs to earn about $171,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Garrett Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $170,903; 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 Garrett Park's effective rate of 0.84%, 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 Garrett Park
Garrett Park runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Garrett Park.
Who works in Garrett Park, and how
Work in Garrett Park centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 45%
- Work from home 41%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Garrett Park
The coast is about 35 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Garrett Park, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Garrett Park, month by month
Garrett Park sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 36° | 28° |
| April | 68° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 70° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Garrett Park
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 13 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 Garrett Park
Schools across Garrett Park average a B+, better than 84% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Garrett Park ElementaryB · 49% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tilden MiddleB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Walter Johnson HighA · 79% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Garrett Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Garrett Park 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 Garrett Park against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Garrett Park
Is Garrett Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Garrett Park ranks 2,640th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, population health, and transit, 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 Garrett Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $649,710. The overall cost of living runs about 45% above the national average. Set against a $170,903 median income, cost of living beats 91% of towns.
Is Garrett Park safe?
Garrett Park is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $451 per resident a year.
Compare Garrett Park with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Garrett Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Garrett Park 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.
Garrett Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Garrett Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Garrett Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Garrett Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Garrett Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Garrett Park 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.