Best PlacesSeat Pleasant, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Seat Pleasant, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Seat Pleasant ranks 45,460th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Seat Pleasant
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.
Seat Pleasant's strengths and weaknesses
Where Seat Pleasant ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 99% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 97% of towns
- BikingBetter than 95% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 90% of towns
Where Seat Pleasant ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- School gradeD−, better than only 3% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Seat Pleasant
A household needs to earn about $84,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Seat Pleasant home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $79,550; 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 Seat Pleasant's effective rate of 1.03%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Seat Pleasant
Seat Pleasant runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Seat Pleasant.
Who works in Seat Pleasant, and how
Work in Seat Pleasant centers on hospitality & food and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 66%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Seat Pleasant
The coast is about 31 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Seat Pleasant, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Seat Pleasant, month by month
Seat Pleasant sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 45, 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 | 45° | 36° | 28° |
| April | 68° | 57° | 46° |
| July | 90° | 80° | 70° |
| October | 70° | 59° | 50° |
Flying in and out of Seat Pleasant
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 8 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.0 million passengers in 2025, with 128 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Seat Pleasant
Schools across Seat Pleasant average a D−, better than 3% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Robert R. Gray ElementaryD− · 11% proficient
- Carmody Hills ElementaryD− · 11% proficient
- Seat Pleasant ElementaryF · 10% proficient
Top middle schools
- Walker Mill MiddleD+ · 25% proficient
- G. James Gholson MiddleF · 9% proficient
Top high schools
- Fairmont Heights HighD · 22% proficient
- Central HighD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Seat Pleasant school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Seat Pleasant 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 Seat Pleasant against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Seat Pleasant
Is Seat Pleasant a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Seat Pleasant ranks 45,460th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, transit, and big-city access, and lowest on taxes and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Seat Pleasant expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $310,547. The overall cost of living runs about 16% above the national average. Set against a $79,550 median income, cost of living beats 24% of towns.
Is Seat Pleasant safe?
Seat Pleasant is safer than 1% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,127 per resident a year.
Compare Seat Pleasant with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Seat Pleasant. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Seat Pleasant 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.
Seat Pleasant detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Seat Pleasant: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Seat Pleasant: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Seat Pleasant: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Seat Pleasant: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Seat Pleasant 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.