Best PlacesRawlings, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rawlings, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Rawlings ranks 36,925th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Taxes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on short commutes.
The best neighborhoods in Rawlings
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.
Rawlings' strengths and weaknesses
Where Rawlings ranks high
- Short commute21.9 minutes each way, better than 80% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 79% of towns
- BikingBetter than 77% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 77% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 76% of towns
Where Rawlings ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rawlings
A household needs to earn about $37,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rawlings home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,369, 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 Rawlings' effective rate of 0.89%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Rawlings
Rawlings runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Rawlings.
Who works in Rawlings, and how
Work in Rawlings centers on education and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Rawlings
Rawlings has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Rawlings and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Rawlings, month by month
Rawlings sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 41, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 41° | 33° | 26° |
| April | 68° | 54° | 43° |
| July | 88° | 76° | 66° |
| October | 69° | 56° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Rawlings
The nearest airport, Morgantown Municipal/Walter L Bill Hart Field, is about 54 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Washington Dulles International, about 87 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rawlings
Schools across Rawlings average a C−, better than 25% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bel Air ElementaryD · 20% proficient
- Westernport ElementaryD · 20% proficient
- George's Creek ElementaryD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Westmar MiddleD− · 19% proficient
- Washington MiddleD− · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- Fort Hill HighB+ · 58% proficient
- Mountain Ridge High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rawlings school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rawlings 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 Rawlings against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rawlings
Is Rawlings a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rawlings ranks 36,925th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, tree cover, and biking, 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 Rawlings expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $141,340. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $71,369 median income, cost of living beats 52% of towns.
Is Rawlings safe?
Rawlings is safer than 11% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $542 per resident a year.
Compare Rawlings with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rawlings. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rawlings 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.
Rawlings detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rawlings: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rawlings: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rawlings: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rawlings: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rawlings 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.