Best PlacesGarrison, Owings Mills, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Garrison, Owings Mills, 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.
Garrison, Owings Mills ranks 2,460th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Garrison, Owings Mills
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.
Garrison, Owings Mills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Garrison, Owings Mills ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 94% of neighborhoods
- Educational attainmentBetter than 91% of neighborhoods
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 90% of neighborhoods
- Healthcare accessBetter than 86% of neighborhoods
- Tree shadeBetter than 84% of neighborhoods
Where Garrison, Owings Mills ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 3% of neighborhoods
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 5% of neighborhoods
- WalkabilityBetter than only 7% of neighborhoods
- BikingBetter than only 12% of neighborhoods
- Cell coverageBetter than only 12% of neighborhoods
What it costs to buy a home in Garrison, Owings Mills
A household needs to earn about $148,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Garrison, Owings Mills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $126,220, 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 Garrison, Owings Mills' effective rate of 0.96%, 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 Garrison, Owings Mills
Garrison, Owings Mills runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Garrison, Owings Mills.
Who works in Garrison, Owings Mills, and how
Work in Garrison, Owings Mills centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 52%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 20%
Life in Garrison, Owings Mills
Garrison, Owings Mills has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of neighborhoods. The coast is about 24 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Garrison, Owings Mills and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Garrison, Owings Mills, month by month
Garrison, Owings Mills sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 39° | 33° |
| April | 68° | 59° | 51° |
| July | 91° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 71° | 63° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Garrison, Owings Mills
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 16 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 Garrison, Owings Mills
Schools across Garrison, Owings Mills average a D+, better than 20% of neighborhoods.
Top elementary schools
- Fort Garrison ElementaryB · 47% proficient
- Woodholme ElementaryD · 17% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pikesville MiddleD+ · 24% proficient
- Northwest Academy Of Health SciencesD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Pikesville HighC+ · 38% proficient
- New Town HighD− · 15% proficient
- Owings Mills HighD− · 11% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Garrison, Owings Mills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Garrison, Owings Mills 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 Garrison, Owings Mills against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.
Common questions about living in Garrison, Owings Mills
Is Garrison, Owings Mills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Garrison, Owings Mills ranks 2,460th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on what local pay buys, an educated workforce, and a stable housing market, and lowest on state infrastructure and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Garrison, Owings Mills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $553,728. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $126,220 median income, cost of living beats 94% of neighborhoods.
Is Garrison, Owings Mills safe?
Garrison, Owings Mills is safer than 55% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $408 per resident a year.
Compare Garrison, Owings Mills with other neighborhoods
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Garrison, Owings Mills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Garrison, Owings Mills 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.
Garrison, Owings Mills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Garrison, Owings Mills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Garrison, Owings Mills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Garrison, Owings Mills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Garrison, Owings Mills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Garrison, Owings Mills 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.