Best PlacesManchester, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Manchester, 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.
Manchester ranks 6,229th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on few empty homes by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Manchester
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.
Manchester's strengths and weaknesses
Where Manchester ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 95% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$122,430 median, better than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 93% of towns
Where Manchester 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$1,262 a month, better than only 12% of towns
- Short commute34.1 minutes each way, better than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Manchester
A household needs to earn about $106,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Manchester home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $122,430, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Manchester's effective rate of 0.86%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Manchester
Manchester runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Manchester.
Who works in Manchester, and how
Work in Manchester centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Manchester
Manchester has more parkland per resident than 88% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Manchester and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Manchester, month by month
Manchester sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 35° | 29° |
| April | 68° | 56° | 47° |
| July | 91° | 80° | 71° |
| October | 70° | 60° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Manchester
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 36 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 Manchester
Schools across Manchester average a B−, better than 65% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Fifth District ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Prettyboy ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Manchester ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hereford MiddleB+ · 50% proficient
- North Carroll MiddleC · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Manchester Valley HighA · 68% proficient
- Hereford HighB+ · 54% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Manchester school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Manchester 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 Manchester against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Manchester
Is Manchester a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Manchester ranks 6,229th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on few empty homes, big-city access, and civic engagement, 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 Manchester expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $403,237. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $122,430 median income, cost of living beats 93% of towns.
Is Manchester safe?
Manchester is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $307 per resident a year.
Compare Manchester with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Manchester. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Manchester 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.
Manchester detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Manchester: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Manchester: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Manchester: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Manchester: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Manchester 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.