Best PlacesGolf Club Shores, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Golf Club Shores, 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.
Golf Club Shores ranks 7,278th 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 Golf Club Shores
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.
Golf Club Shores' strengths and weaknesses
Where Golf Club Shores ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$139,344 median, better than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
Where Golf Club Shores ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 5% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Golf Club Shores
A household needs to earn about $156,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Golf Club Shores home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $139,344; 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 Golf Club Shores' effective rate of 0.54%, 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 Golf Club Shores
Golf Club Shores runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Golf Club Shores.
Who works in Golf Club Shores, and how
Work in Golf Club Shores centers on admin & support services and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 9%
Life in Golf Club Shores
The coast is about 9 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Golf Club Shores, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Golf Club Shores, month by month
Golf Club Shores sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 48, 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 | 48° | 38° | 28° |
| April | 66° | 55° | 45° |
| July | 87° | 78° | 69° |
| October | 72° | 62° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Golf Club Shores
The nearest airport, Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 102 miles away.
The best schools in and around Golf Club Shores
Schools across Golf Club Shores average a B, better than 74% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ocean City ElementaryB− · 40% proficient
- Buckingham ElementaryD · 20% proficient
- Snow Hill ElementaryD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Berlin IntermediateB+ · 48% proficient
- Snow Hill MiddleD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Stephen Decatur HighA · 67% proficient
- Snow Hill HighA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Golf Club Shores school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Golf Club Shores 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 Golf Club Shores against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Golf Club Shores
Is Golf Club Shores a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Golf Club Shores ranks 7,278th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, what local pay buys, and high incomes, and lowest on taxes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Golf Club Shores expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $620,631. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $139,344 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is Golf Club Shores safe?
Golf Club Shores is safer than 20% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $456 per resident a year.
Compare Golf Club Shores with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Golf Club Shores. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Golf Club Shores 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.
Golf Club Shores detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Golf Club Shores: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Golf Club Shores: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Golf Club Shores: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Golf Club Shores: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Golf Club Shores 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.