Best PlacesRoyal Oak, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Royal Oak, 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.
Royal Oak ranks 12,905th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Royal Oak
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.
Royal Oak's strengths and weaknesses
Where Royal Oak ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 95% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of towns
Where Royal Oak ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Royal Oak
A household needs to earn about $202,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Royal Oak home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $113,752, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Royal Oak's effective rate of 0.48%, 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 Royal Oak
Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak.
Who works in Royal Oak, and how
Work in Royal Oak centers on professional & technical and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Royal Oak
The coast is about 8 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Royal Oak, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Royal Oak, month by month
Royal Oak sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 31. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 38° | 31° |
| April | 68° | 58° | 49° |
| July | 89° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 71° | 62° | 54° |
Flying in and out of Royal Oak
The nearest airport, Salisbury-Ocean City Wicomico Regional, is about 41 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 45 miles away.
The best schools in and around Royal Oak
Schools across Royal Oak average a C, better than 35% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- St. Michaels ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
- White Marsh ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Easton MiddleD · 23% proficient
- Salisbury MiddleD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Easton HighB+ · 52% proficient
- St. Michaels Middle/high SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- James M. Bennett HighB− · 44% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Royal Oak school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Royal Oak 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 Royal Oak against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Royal Oak
Is Royal Oak a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Royal Oak ranks 12,905th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, an educated workforce, and civic engagement, and lowest on taxes and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Royal Oak expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $809,500. The overall cost of living runs about 3% above the national average. Set against a $113,752 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Royal Oak safe?
Yes, Royal Oak is safer than 75% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $215 per resident a year.
Compare Royal Oak with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Royal Oak. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Royal Oak 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.
Royal Oak detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Royal Oak: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Royal Oak: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Royal Oak: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Royal Oak: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Royal Oak 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.