Best PlacesGlen Echo, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Glen Echo, 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.
Glen Echo ranks 900th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Glen Echo
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.
Glen Echo's strengths and weaknesses
Where Glen Echo ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$250,001 median, better than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
Where Glen Echo ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,745 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 2% 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 Glen Echo
A household needs to earn about $402,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Glen Echo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $250,001, 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 Glen Echo's effective rate of 0.85%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Glen Echo
Glen Echo runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Glen Echo.
Who works in Glen Echo, and how
Work in Glen Echo centers on education and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 60%
- Work from home 35%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Glen Echo
The coast is about 28 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Glen Echo, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Glen Echo, month by month
Glen Echo sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 38° | 30° |
| April | 72° | 59° | 48° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 74° | 63° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Glen Echo
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 10 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 Glen Echo
Schools across Glen Echo average an A, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bannockburn ElementaryA · 65% proficient
Top middle schools
- Thomas W. Pyle MiddleA · 62% proficient
Top high schools
- Walt Whitman HighA+ · 91% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Glen Echo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Glen Echo 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 Glen Echo against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Glen Echo
Is Glen Echo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Glen Echo ranks 900th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, an educated workforce, and what local pay buys, 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 Glen Echo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,528,800. The overall cost of living runs about 43% above the national average. Set against a $250,001 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Glen Echo safe?
Glen Echo is safer than 10% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $529 per resident a year.
Compare Glen Echo with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Glen Echo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Glen Echo 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.
Glen Echo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Glen Echo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Glen Echo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Glen Echo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Glen Echo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Glen Echo 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.