Best PlacesLaurel, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Laurel, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Laurel ranks 1,250th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Taxes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on heat safety.
The best neighborhoods in Laurel
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.
Laurel's strengths and weaknesses
Where Laurel ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 86% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 81% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 78% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than 78% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 76% of cities
Where Laurel ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 4% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 6% of cities
- School gradeD+, better than only 9% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 13% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Laurel
A household needs to earn about $117,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Laurel home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $116,160; 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 Laurel's effective rate of 1.09%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Laurel
Laurel runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Laurel.
Who works in Laurel, and how
Work in Laurel centers on professional & technical and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Laurel
Laurel has more restaurants and bars per resident than 75% of cities and more parkland per resident than 94% of cities. The coast is about 25 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Laurel and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Laurel, month by month
Laurel sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 34° | 27° |
| April | 67° | 54° | 43° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 67° |
| October | 68° | 56° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Laurel
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 12 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 Laurel
Schools across Laurel average a D+, better than 9% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Pointers Run ElementaryA · 63% proficient
- Fulton ElementaryA− · 56% proficient
- Gorman Crossing ElementaryC+ · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Lime Kiln MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
- Murray Hill MiddleC · 32% proficient
- Patuxent Valley MiddleC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Atholton HighA · 74% proficient
- Reservoir HighA− · 66% proficient
- Hammond HighB · 49% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Laurel school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Laurel 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 Laurel against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Laurel suits
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Laurel
Is Laurel a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Laurel ranks 1,250th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on heat safety, big-city access, and walkability, 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 Laurel expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $429,563. The overall cost of living runs about 13% above the national average. Set against a $116,160 median income, cost of living beats 62% of cities.
Is Laurel safe?
Laurel is safer than 13% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $460 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Laurel?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 43 with lows near 27. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 39% of cities.
Is Laurel good for families?
Schools beat 9% of cities, crime safety beats 13%, and childcare runs $1,328 a month.
Compare Laurel with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Laurel. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Laurel 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.
Laurel detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Laurel: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Laurel: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Laurel: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Laurel: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Laurel 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.