Best PlacesTaneytown, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Taneytown, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Taneytown ranks 19,102nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on big-city access by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Taneytown
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.
Taneytown's strengths and weaknesses
Where Taneytown ranks high
- Big-city accessBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 91% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 88% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 88% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 88% of towns
Where Taneytown 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
- Cheap childcare$1,253 a month, better than only 12% of towns
- Short commute34.8 minutes each way, better than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Taneytown
A household needs to earn about $97,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Taneytown home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $90,486; 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 Taneytown's effective rate of 0.99%, 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 Taneytown
Taneytown runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Taneytown.
Who works in Taneytown, and how
Work in Taneytown centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Taneytown
Taneytown has more restaurants and bars per resident than 79% of towns and more parkland per resident than 89% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Taneytown and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Taneytown, month by month
Taneytown sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 42, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 42° | 35° | 29° |
| April | 68° | 56° | 47° |
| July | 91° | 80° | 71° |
| October | 70° | 60° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Taneytown
The nearest airport, Hagerstown Regional/Richard A Henson Field, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall, about 43 miles away.
The best schools in and around Taneytown
Schools across Taneytown average a C+, better than 46% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Alloway Creek El SchA− · 56% proficient
- Runnymede ElementaryC · 33% proficient
- Elmer A. Wolfe ElementaryC− · 28% proficient
Top middle schools
- Westminster East MiddleC · 34% proficient
- Thurmont MiddleC− · 28% proficient
- Northwest MiddleC− · 28% proficient
Top high schools
- Winters Mill HighA · 70% proficient
- Catoctin HighB+ · 58% proficient
- Francis Scott Key HighB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Taneytown school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Taneytown 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 Taneytown against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Taneytown
Is Taneytown a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Taneytown ranks 19,102nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on big-city access, transit, and fast internet, 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 Taneytown expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $362,744. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $90,486 median income, cost of living beats 73% of towns.
Is Taneytown safe?
Taneytown is safer than 40% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $319 per resident a year.
Compare Taneytown with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Taneytown. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Taneytown 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.
Taneytown detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Taneytown: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Taneytown: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Taneytown: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Taneytown: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Taneytown 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.