Best PlacesWoodlawn, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Woodlawn, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Woodlawn ranks 1,582nd of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Taxes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on cell coverage.
The best neighborhoods in Woodlawn
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.
The best areas in Woodlawn
The parts of Woodlawn, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Westerlee & Ellicott Mills
Parkview Trail
Chadwick Manor
Colonial Park
Howard Park
Edmondson Heights
Westview Park
Scores across Woodlawn run from about the 15th to the 73rd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Woodlawn's strengths and weaknesses
Where Woodlawn ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 82% of cities
- TransitBetter than 82% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 80% of cities
- Big-city accessBetter than 79% of cities
- Tree shadeBetter than 72% of cities
Where Woodlawn ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 4% of cities
- School gradeD, better than only 4% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 8% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 10% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Woodlawn
A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Woodlawn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $90,817, 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 Woodlawn's effective rate of 1.02%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Woodlawn
Woodlawn runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Woodlawn.
Who works in Woodlawn, and how
Work in Woodlawn centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Woodlawn
Woodlawn has more restaurants and bars per resident than 83% of cities and more parkland per resident than 87% of cities. The coast is about 19 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Woodlawn and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Woodlawn, month by month
Woodlawn sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 45, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 45° | 39° | 33° |
| April | 68° | 59° | 51° |
| July | 91° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 71° | 63° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Woodlawn
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 10 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.3 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Woodlawn
Schools across Woodlawn average a D, better than 4% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Woodbridge ElementaryC− · 27% proficient
- Chadwick ElementaryC− · 26% proficient
- Powhatan ElementaryD− · 15% proficient
Top middle schools
- Catonsville MiddleC+ · 35% proficient
- Meadowood Education CenterD+ · 25% proficient
- Southwest AcademyD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Catonsville HighC+ · 38% proficient
- Woodlawn HighD− · 15% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Woodlawn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Woodlawn 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 Woodlawn against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Woodlawn suits
Common questions about living in Woodlawn
Is Woodlawn a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Woodlawn ranks 1,582nd of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on cell coverage, transit, and a stable housing market, 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 Woodlawn expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $303,463. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $90,817 median income, cost of living beats 54% of cities.
Is Woodlawn safe?
Woodlawn is safer than 10% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $513 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Woodlawn?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 45 with lows near 33. That works out to about 97 pleasant days a year, more than 58% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Woodlawn?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Westerlee & Ellicott Mills, Parkview Trail, and Chadwick Manor. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Woodlawn with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Woodlawn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Woodlawn 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.
Woodlawn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Woodlawn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Woodlawn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Woodlawn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Woodlawn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Woodlawn 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.