Best PlacesPleasant Hills, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pleasant Hills, 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.
Pleasant Hills ranks 1,678th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Pleasant Hills
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.
Pleasant Hills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Pleasant Hills ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$166,773 median, better than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 96% of towns
Where Pleasant Hills ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute38.2 minutes each way, better than only 8% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,312 a month, better than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pleasant Hills
A household needs to earn about $139,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pleasant Hills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $166,773, 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 Pleasant Hills' effective rate of 0.77%, 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 Pleasant Hills
Pleasant Hills runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pleasant Hills.
Who works in Pleasant Hills, and how
Work in Pleasant Hills centers on health care & social and public administration. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Pleasant Hills
Pleasant Hills has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of towns. The coast is about 23 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Pleasant Hills and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pleasant Hills, month by month
Pleasant Hills sees roughly 75 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 36° | 30° |
| April | 65° | 56° | 47° |
| July | 88° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 69° | 60° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Pleasant Hills
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 26 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 Pleasant Hills
Schools across Pleasant Hills average a B+, better than 77% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Carroll Manor ElementaryA · 67% proficient
- Kingsville ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Youths Benefit ElementaryB · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fallston Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Perry Hall MiddleC+ · 36% proficient
- Cockeysville MiddleC · 34% proficient
Top high schools
- Fallston HighA · 77% proficient
- Perry Hall HighC+ · 35% proficient
- Loch Raven HighC · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pleasant Hills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pleasant Hills 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 Pleasant Hills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pleasant Hills
Is Pleasant Hills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pleasant Hills ranks 1,678th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, civic engagement, and high incomes, and lowest on taxes and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pleasant Hills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $533,288. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $166,773 median income, cost of living beats 99% of towns.
Is Pleasant Hills safe?
Yes, Pleasant Hills is safer than 77% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $210 per resident a year.
Compare Pleasant Hills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pleasant Hills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pleasant Hills 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.
Pleasant Hills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pleasant Hills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pleasant Hills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pleasant Hills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pleasant Hills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pleasant Hills 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.