Best PlacesRidge, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ridge, 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.
Ridge ranks 18,694th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Ridge
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.
Ridge's strengths and weaknesses
Where Ridge ranks high
- TransitBetter than 91% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 90% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 88% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 88% of towns
- BikingBetter than 88% of towns
Where Ridge 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 10% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ridge
A household needs to earn about $106,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ridge home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $104,785; 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 Ridge's effective rate of 0.81%, 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 Ridge
Ridge 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 Ridge.
Who works in Ridge, and how
Work in Ridge centers on public administration and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Ridge
The coast is about 3 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Ridge, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ridge, month by month
Ridge sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 40° | 31° |
| April | 71° | 59° | 47° |
| July | 90° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 75° | 63° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Ridge
The nearest airport, Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional, is about 50 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl, about 62 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ridge
Schools across Ridge average a C, better than 40% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ridge ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Spring Ridge MiddleC · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Great Mills HighB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ridge school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ridge 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 Ridge against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ridge
Is Ridge a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ridge ranks 18,694th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, population health, and civic engagement, 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 Ridge expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $404,336. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $104,785 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Ridge safe?
Ridge is safer than 10% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $547 per resident a year.
Compare Ridge with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ridge. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ridge 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.
Ridge detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ridge: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ridge: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ridge: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ridge: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ridge 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.