Best PlacesHarwood, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Harwood, 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.
Harwood ranks 1,753rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Harwood
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.
Harwood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Harwood ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$174,659 median, better than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
Where Harwood ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,268 a month, better than only 12% of towns
- Short commute34.5 minutes each way, better than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Harwood
A household needs to earn about $184,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Harwood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $174,659; 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 Harwood's effective rate of 0.73%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Harwood
Harwood 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 Harwood.
Who works in Harwood, and how
Work in Harwood centers on professional & technical and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Harwood
The coast is about 16 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Harwood, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Harwood, month by month
Harwood sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 44, with lows near 32. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 44° | 38° | 32° |
| April | 65° | 57° | 50° |
| July | 87° | 80° | 74° |
| October | 69° | 62° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Harwood
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 20 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 Harwood
Schools across Harwood average a B−, better than 58% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Central ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
- Monarch Global Academy Pcs Laurel CampusC− · 29% proficient
- Lothian ElementaryD · 17% proficient
Top middle schools
- Central MiddleB− · 42% proficient
- Benjamin Tasker Middle SchoolC− · 31% proficient
- Southern MiddleC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- South River HighA · 70% proficient
- Southern HighA− · 63% proficient
- Bowie HighB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Harwood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Harwood 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 Harwood against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Harwood
Is Harwood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Harwood ranks 1,753rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and big-city access, 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 Harwood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $708,812. The overall cost of living runs about 3% above the national average. Set against a $174,659 median income, cost of living beats 99% of towns.
Is Harwood safe?
Yes, Harwood is safer than 89% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $174 per resident a year.
Compare Harwood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Harwood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Harwood 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.
Harwood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Harwood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Harwood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Harwood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Harwood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Harwood 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.