Best PlacesPikesville, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pikesville, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Pikesville ranks 1,045th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Taxes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on an educated workforce.
The best neighborhoods in Pikesville
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.
The best areas in Pikesville
The parts of Pikesville, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Bonnie Ridge, Wellwood & Pickwick
Greengate & Quarry Lake at Greenspring
Garrison & Annen Woods
Pomona & Willow Glen North
Glen-Fallstaff & Ralston
Scores across Pikesville run from about the 4th to the 89th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Pikesville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pikesville ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 89% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 83% of cities
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 79% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 78% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 77% of cities
Where Pikesville ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 4% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 7% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 14% of cities
- School gradeC−, better than only 14% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Pikesville
A household needs to earn about $109,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pikesville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $107,444; 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 Pikesville's effective rate of 0.95%, 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 Pikesville
Pikesville runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pikesville.
Who works in Pikesville, and how
Work in Pikesville centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Pikesville
Pikesville has more parkland per resident than 84% of cities. The coast is about 23 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Pikesville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pikesville, month by month
Pikesville sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 39° | 33° |
| April | 68° | 59° | 51° |
| July | 91° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 71° | 63° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Pikesville
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 14 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 Pikesville
Schools across Pikesville average a C−, better than 14% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- West Towson ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Fort Garrison ElementaryB · 47% proficient
- Summit Park ElementaryB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Dumbarton MiddleB · 45% proficient
- Pikesville MiddleD+ · 24% proficient
- Northwest Academy Of Health SciencesD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Towson HighB+ · 55% proficient
- Pikesville HighC+ · 38% proficient
- New Town HighD− · 15% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pikesville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pikesville 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 Pikesville against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Pikesville suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 79% of cities and 22% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 58% of cities and health care access beats 78%.
Common questions about living in Pikesville
Is Pikesville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pikesville ranks 1,045th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on an educated workforce, a stable housing market, and what local pay buys, 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 Pikesville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $410,425. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $107,444 median income, cost of living beats 79% of cities.
Is Pikesville safe?
Pikesville is safer than 20% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $415 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Pikesville?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 45 with lows near 33. That works out to about 97 pleasant days a year, more than 58% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Pikesville?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Bonnie Ridge, Wellwood & Pickwick, Greengate & Quarry Lake at Greenspring, and Garrison & Annen Woods. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Pikesville with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pikesville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pikesville 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.
Pikesville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pikesville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pikesville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pikesville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pikesville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pikesville 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.