Best PlacesNew Carrollton, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around New Carrollton, 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.
New Carrollton ranks 38,418th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in New Carrollton
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.
New Carrollton's strengths and weaknesses
Where New Carrollton ranks high
- TransitBetter than 97% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 97% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
Where New Carrollton ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 5% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 6% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in New Carrollton
A household needs to earn about $114,000 a year to comfortably buy the median New Carrollton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,559, 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 New Carrollton's effective rate of 1.18%, 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 New Carrollton
New Carrollton runs younger 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 New Carrollton.
Who works in New Carrollton, and how
Work in New Carrollton centers on health care & social and transportation & warehousing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in New Carrollton
The coast is about 28 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across New Carrollton, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in New Carrollton, month by month
New Carrollton sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 45, 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 | 45° | 36° | 28° |
| April | 68° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 70° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of New Carrollton
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 12 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 New Carrollton
Schools across New Carrollton average a D, better than 6% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Greenbelt ElementaryC− · 29% proficient
- Glenridge ElementaryD− · 13% proficient
- Lamont ElementaryD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- Greenbelt MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
- Thomas Johnson MiddleD− · 17% proficient
- Charles Carroll MiddleF · 11% proficient
Top high schools
- Eleanor Roosevelt HighA− · 65% proficient
- Duval HighC+ · 36% proficient
- Parkdale HighC · 31% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every New Carrollton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
New Carrollton 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 New Carrollton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in New Carrollton
Is New Carrollton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, New Carrollton ranks 38,418th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, big-city access, and walkability, and lowest on taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is New Carrollton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $413,416. The overall cost of living runs about 16% above the national average. Set against a $88,559 median income, cost of living beats 33% of towns.
Is New Carrollton safe?
New Carrollton is safer than 13% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $526 per resident a year.
Compare New Carrollton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to New Carrollton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in New Carrollton 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.
New Carrollton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for New Carrollton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in New Carrollton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of New Carrollton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in New Carrollton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
New Carrollton 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.