Best PlacesPatuxent, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Patuxent, 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.
Patuxent ranks 5,356th 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 Patuxent
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.
Patuxent's strengths and weaknesses
Where Patuxent ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$244,779 median, better than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
Where Patuxent ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Patuxent
A household needs to earn about $167,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Patuxent home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $244,779, 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 Patuxent's effective rate of 1.05%, 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 Patuxent
Patuxent 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 Patuxent.
Who works in Patuxent, and how
Work in Patuxent centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Patuxent
The coast is about 27 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Patuxent, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Patuxent, month by month
Patuxent sees roughly 76 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 Patuxent
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 11 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 Patuxent
Schools across Patuxent average a C, better than 32% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Monarch Global Academy Pcs Laurel CampusC− · 29% proficient
- Rockledge ElementaryD · 18% proficient
Top middle schools
- Crofton MiddleB · 47% proficient
- Samuel Ogle MiddleC− · 28% proficient
- Macarthur MiddleC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Arundel HighB+ · 58% proficient
- Bowie HighB · 47% proficient
- Meade HighB− · 41% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Patuxent school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Patuxent 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 Patuxent against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Patuxent
Is Patuxent a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Patuxent ranks 5,356th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, what local pay buys, and high incomes, and lowest on taxes and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Patuxent expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $617,815. The overall cost of living runs about 15% above the national average. Set against a $244,779 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Patuxent safe?
Patuxent is safer than 31% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $382 per resident a year.
Compare Patuxent with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Patuxent. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Patuxent 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.
Patuxent detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Patuxent: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Patuxent: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Patuxent: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Patuxent: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Patuxent 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.