Best PlacesSt. Leonard, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around St. Leonard, 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.
St. Leonard ranks 8,695th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in St. Leonard
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.
St. Leonard's strengths and weaknesses
Where St. Leonard ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 98% of towns
- Household income$144,494 median, better than 97% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 92% of towns
- TransitBetter than 90% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 86% of towns
Where St. Leonard ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Short commute38.7 minutes each way, better than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,253 a month, better than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in St. Leonard
A household needs to earn about $128,000 a year to comfortably buy the median St. Leonard home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $144,494, 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 St. Leonard'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 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 St. Leonard
St. Leonard runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for St. Leonard.
Who works in St. Leonard, and how
Work in St. Leonard centers on construction and public administration. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in St. Leonard
The coast is about 6 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across St. Leonard, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in St. Leonard, month by month
St. Leonard sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 49, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 49° | 39° | 30° |
| April | 70° | 59° | 48° |
| July | 91° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 74° | 63° | 53° |
Flying in and out of St. Leonard
Ronald Reagan Washington Ntl sits about 39 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 St. Leonard
Schools across St. Leonard average a C+, better than 45% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mutual ElementaryC · 35% proficient
- Barstow ElementaryD+ · 25% proficient
- St Leonard ElementaryD+ · 22% proficient
Top middle schools
- Calvert MiddleC− · 29% proficient
- Southern MiddleD+ · 26% proficient
Top high schools
- Calvert HighB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every St. Leonard school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
St. Leonard 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 St. Leonard against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in St. Leonard
Is St. Leonard a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, St. Leonard ranks 8,695th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and big-city access, and lowest on taxes and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is St. Leonard expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $487,535. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $144,494 median income, cost of living beats 98% of towns.
Is St. Leonard safe?
Yes, St. Leonard is safer than 75% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $228 per resident a year.
Compare St. Leonard with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to St. Leonard. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in St. Leonard 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.
St. Leonard detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for St. Leonard: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in St. Leonard: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of St. Leonard: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in St. Leonard: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
St. Leonard 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.