Best PlacesPortsville, DE Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Portsville, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Portsville ranks 24,592nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on state infrastructure by a wide margin, and the weather ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Portsville
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.
Portsville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Portsville ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 98% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 92% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 83% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 81% of towns
Where Portsville ranks low
- Nice weatherabout 60 pleasant days a year, better than only 8% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 11% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 26% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Portsville
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Portsville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,908, 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 Portsville's effective rate of 0.35%, 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 Portsville
Portsville runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Portsville.
Who works in Portsville, and how
Work in Portsville centers on health care & social and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Portsville
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Portsville.
What the weather is like in Portsville, month by month
Portsville sees roughly 60 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 49, 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 | 49° | 38° | 28° |
| April | 70° | 56° | 44° |
| July | 90° | 79° | 69° |
| October | 73° | 61° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Portsville
The nearest airport, Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 71 miles away.
The best schools in and around Portsville
Schools across Portsville average a D, better than 11% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Laurel Middle SchoolD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Laurel Senior High SchoolD · 18% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Portsville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Portsville 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 Portsville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Portsville
Is Portsville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Portsville ranks 24,592nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, low property taxes, and big-city access, and lowest on the weather and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Portsville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $281,719. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $71,908 median income, cost of living beats 41% of towns.
Is Portsville safe?
Portsville is safer than 53% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $263 per resident a year.
Compare Portsville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Portsville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Portsville 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.
Portsville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Portsville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Portsville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Portsville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Portsville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Portsville 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.