Anne Arundel County

Annapolis

Sure, it’s Sailing City, the state capital, and home to the Naval Academy, but it’s still got a small-town feel and a cool harbor scene, too.

Population: 39,255

Median home price:$367,600

Walk Score: 48

Good Public Schools:
Broadneck HS
Magothy River MS
Broadneck Elem.
Cape St. Claire Elem.

Notables: You can’t get much more historic than Annapolis, and there are lots of snappy-looking Naval Academy midshipmen walking around.

Severna Park

Severna Park is located approximately 8 miles north of Annapolis and 17 miles south of Baltimore. A large portion of the Baltimore & Annapolis trail runs through the town.

Population: 37, 634

Median home price:$452,200

Walk Score: 16

Good Public Schools:
Severna Park HS
Severna Park MS
Benfield Elem.
Folger McKinsey Elem.
Jones Elem.
Oak Hill Elem.
Severna Park Elem.
Shipley’s Choice Elem.

Arnold

Arnold is located on the scenic Broad Neck peninsula and is about 5 miles north of Annapolis and 24 miles south of downtown Baltimore. Arnold contains many scenic riversides with cliffs and beaches, providing plenty of places for leisure and sightseeing.

Population: 23,106

Median home price: $378,900

Walk score: 13

Crofton

Crofton’s location at the center of the Baltimore-Annapolis-D.C. triangle has made it a tranquil bedroom community, but there’s also lots of shopping along the Route 3 corridor.

Population: 27,348

Median home price: $322,000

Walk score: 25

Notable: Crofton was named one of the top 100 places to live in Money Magazine in 2007

Davidsonville

Population: 13,329

Median home price: $575,200

Walk score: 18

Notable: Within the town is the Davidsonville Historic District that contains fifteen properties that represent the period from the village’s initial settlement in about 1835 through the early 20 ^th century.

Glen Burnie

Population: 67, 639

Median home price: $220,100

Walk score: 34

Notable: Nickname is the “Chrome City”

Pasadena

Population: 24,287

Median home price: $273,200

Walk score: 26

Good public schools:
Chesapeake HS
Chesapeake Bay MS
Bodkin Elem.
Jacobsville Elem.
Lake Shore Elem.
Pasadena Elem.

Baltimore City

Bolton Hill

Smack dab in the middle of the city, Bolton Hill combines everything that’s great about Baltimore. A neighborhood rich in history, it has also welcomed a hip, progressive community of young artists, professionals, and families.

Population: 4,921

Median home price: $349,200

Walk score: 82

Transit score: 75

Butcher’s Hill

What used to be home to affluent German and Jewish butchers is now home to a diverse cross-section of the city. Butchers Hill is at the northwest end of Patterson Park, bounded by Fayette Street on the north, Patterson Park Avenue on the east, Pratt Street on the south, and Washington Street on the west.

Population: 1,934

Median home price: $247,100

Walk Score: 87

Transit Score: 63

Canton

While still the destination of choice for young urban professionals looking for restaurants and nightlife, more of them are staying to get married and have kids.

Population: 11,527

Median home price: $283,700

Walk score: 86

Transit score: 56

Nearby park: Canton Waterfront Park

Notable: If ever a place could give Fells Point a run for its money in bars-per-square-inch, Canton Square would be it. New bars and restaurants like Plug Ugly’s Publick House and Shiso Tavern squeeze into this stretch of O’Donnell Street next to old timers like Nacho Mama’s that hark back to when the square was grittier and the parking was less intense.

Cedarcroft

Characterized by distinctive Dutch Colonial Revival and Federal Revival-style homes, this neighborhood offers space and quiet.

Population: 747

Median home price: $320,000

Walk score: 68

Transit score: 49

Federal Hill

Steeped in history from port to fort (McHenry), Federal Hill is like a great pair of blue jeans: time-tested, comfortable, and eternally stylish. While Federal Hill has long been a destination for weekend revelers looking for a continuation of college, neighborhood residents (most of whom live primarily in late 19th-century two-and-three-story row houses) include an amalgam of young professionals, old-timers, and first-time home owners who truly love the small-town feeling that they get from living in their ‘hood.

Population: 2,492

Median home price: $321,100

Walk score: 94

Transit score: 71

Fells Point

Like Annapolis, this historic port neighborhood has a lively waterfront bar and restaurant scene.

Population: 3,973

Median home Price: $216,000.

Walk Score: 94

Transit score: 62

Bragging rights: Housing is still affordable and if you work in Baltimore, the commute is sweet

Guilford

If there’s one return address sure to impress your neighbors, it’s this place, parts of which make Roland Park look like Guilford-lite. Also planned by the Olmsted firm and developed by the Roland Park Company in the early 1900s, it encompasses about 800 homes and has stunning examples of early-20th-century architecture, from über cottages to stately mansions reminiscent of the drippy estates in Newport, Rhode Island. It’s also known for its community parks, shady streets, and the tulip fields at Sherwood Gardens.

Median home price: $622,800

Walk score: 48

Transit score: 52

Nearby parks: Diane Geppi-Aikens Field, Butler Practice Field and Notre Dame Alumnae Field

Hampden

Old and young, entrepreneurial and community-minded, blue-collar and bohemian: Hampden is an intriguing mix of opposites, a microcosm of Baltimore.

Population: 6,957

Median home price: $185,500

Walk score: 80

Transit score: 51

Harbor East

Once a no-man’s-land between the Inner Harbor, Little Italy, and Fells Point, this little burg that could has become Baltimore’s Soho: The destination for high-end boutiques, restaurants, and nightlife.

Median home price: $595,000

Walk score: 88

Transit score: 76

Homeland

The Roland Park Homeland Company purchased the 391-acre parcel that would become Homeland in 1924 for $1 million and, to lay it out, hired the Boston firm of the Olmsted Brothers, which had also designed New York’s Central Park. Its rolling terrain evoked the English flavor the company was looking for, and it continues to reflect that today with a mix of large stone cottages, faux Tudor architecture, and streets lined with massive 100-year-old trees. It’s affluent and conservative, and it’s in the city limits, but doesn’t feel like it.

Median home price: $551,000

Walk score: 57

Transit score: 50

Inner Harbor

The city asked architecture firm Ayers Saint Gross to create a plan for the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor. Their plan includes a pedestrian bridge, more green space and more retail pavilions. Read more about the plan here.

Median home price: $255,100

Walk score: 88

Transit score: 76

Lauraville/Hamilton

Anchored by popular restaurants like Clementine, Hamilton Tavern, and Big Bad Wolf’s House of Barbeque, this section of Harford Road is still an up-and-comer, but the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Performing Arts should be a draw, too.

Median home price: $159,800

Walk score: 52

Transit score: 42

Little Italy

Just east of the Inner Harbor, Little Italy is home to ethnic restaurants, bocce ball courts, and a summer outdoor film festival.

Median home price: $339,900

Walk score: 94

Transit score: 79

Locust Point

Locust Point, the neighborhood once home to dock workers and their families, still has the industrial feel with its waterfront factories and Formstone houses. But, while the South Baltimore ’hood (with Lawrence Street to the west and the Patapsco River to the north, south, and east) held onto its blue-collar roots longer than its nearby compatriots, it also has new developments making it extremely attractive to homebuyers.

Median home price: $266,300

Walk score: 68

Transit score: 37

Mt. Vernon

The cobblestone streets lined with history and urban charm in central Baltimore mark not only a cultural and epicurean center, but, increasingly, a family-friendly residential neighborhood.

Population: 4,845

Median home price: $359,600

Walk score: 97

Transit score: 86

Mt. Washington

In the late 1800s, Mt. Washington was a hilly, leafy, summer getaway for wealthy doctors, lawyers, and captains of industry, a respite from the tarmac-fueled heat, noise, crowds, and filth of downtown. Some things haven’t changed: The imposing Victorian and Edwardian “grand cottages” may now mix with the occasional upscale contemporary home, giving the community an eclectic feel, but it still boasts the huge, mature trees, quiet streets, family-friendly parks, and residents who tend to be highly educated and generally well-heeled. The historic-riverside-mill-turned shopping area and the original village center of shops and restaurants gives the ‘hood the feel of a small town. (And if you’re a developer thinking of changing that, beware of a powerful community association.) It also boasts, arguably, the city’s best public elementary school.

Population: 3,817

Median home price: $276,900

Walk score: 26

Transit score: 45

Good public school: The Mt. Washington School

Roland Park

In Charm City, where you’re stereotyped by the name of your ‘hood and where you “prepped,” Roland Park—one of America’s oldest planned neighborhoods—remains a 135-year-old synonym for wealth, power, and education. The houses along Roland Avenue and its hilly, forested sidestreets are often large and grand, the village center is polite and bourgeois, bustling with designer-outfitted denizens who all seem to know each other. So maybe it’s no surprise that it’s also home to some of the state’s most prestigious private secondary schools, as well as one of the best public elementary schools in Baltimore. And unlike some other high-end areas, it’s also completely surrounded by solid neighborhoods, serving as a buffer, of sorts, from crime, grime, or, God forbid, falling resale values.

Population: 5,197

Median home price: $398,600

Walk score: 67

Transit score: 50

Good public school: Roland Park Elem./MS

Seton Hill

Population: 1,327

Median home price: $139,900

Walk score: 94

Transit score: 86

Station North

Launched over a decade ago, Station North was the first area in the city to receive state designation as an Arts and Entertainment district. Today, the edgy arts neighborhood continues to blossom on North Avenue.

Population: 1,151

Walk Score: 89

Transit score: 75

Woodberry

Though the neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it wasn’t until a few years ago that Hampden denizens and artists migrated west and made Woodberry a neighborhood of its own. During the 1890s, about 4,000 people were employed in the various cotton mills in the area. Today, many of these mills make perfect settings for galleries, shops, apartments, and offices.

Population: 1,640

Median home price: $149,000

Walk score: 43

Transit score: 60

Good public school: Medfield Heights Elem.

Wyndhurst

Population: 763

Walk score: 52

Transit score: 45

Notables: Low crime, Good housing values, Commuter friendly

Baltimore County

Butler

It is often referred to as “Worthington Valley”. For almost a century it has served as home to many equestrian events including the Grand Nationals and the Hunt Cup.

Walk score: 15

Notables: Top-rated schools, Low crime, Green space/Parks

Catonsville

Where there is an Atwater’s Bakery, only good things can follow. (Actually, the exhausting full name is The Naturally Leavened Bread Bakery and Café.) This busy shopping district boasts sweet spot SugarBakers Cakes, great consignment spots like Objects Found, and stalwart independent shops like Bill’s Music, in business since 1965.

Population: 41,567

Median home price: $267,200

Walk score: 38

Nearby park: Catonsville Park.

Cockeysville

A boom in the gaming and tech industries of nearby Silicon Hunt Valley has given this lush suburb—chock full of great restaurants and country charm—new luster.

Population: 20,776

Median home price: $310,200

Walk score: 33

Glencoe/Sparks

Sparks is a perfect slice of Maryland countryside in central Baltimore County. Though the community’s borders are somewhat amorphous, it is generally accepted that it encompasses land within a two-mile radius of I-83 north of Hunt Valley and south of Route 138/Monkton Road. It is an area of considerable natural beauty with rolling pastures sloping down to the winding Gunpowder River along which the 20-mile Torrey C. Brown Trail (aka the NCR trail) meanders, offering hiking, biking, horseback riding, and fishing.

Median home price: $307,400

Walk score: 28

Nearby park: Sparks Park

Glyndon

Founded as a privileged retreat from the city’s heat, Glyndon’s spiffier listings run into the millions, but more affordable options are available for under $500,000.

Walk score: 15

Hunt Valley

Median home price: $925,000

Walk score: 58

Notables: Top-rated schools, Low crime, Green space/Parks

Jacksonville

Walk score: 50

Notables: Top-rated schools, Low crime, Green space/Parks

Lutherville/Timonium

Population: 15,629

Median home price: $332,500

Walk score: 34

Nearby parks: West Lutherville Park and Springlake Park.

Notables: Top-rated schools, Green space/Parks, Commuter friendly

Good public schools:

Dulaney HS
Ridgely MS
Timonium Elem.
Pot Spring Elem.
Lutherville Laboratory Elem.
Pinewood Elem.

Mays Chapel

Population: 11,413

Walk score: 15

Nearby parks: Padonia Park, Seminary Park and Essex Farms Park.

Notables: Top-rated schools, Low crime, Green space/Parks, Commuter friendly

Monkton/Hereford

Median home price: $411,000

Walk score: 2

Nearby park: Merryman Park

Notables: Top-rated schools, Low crime, Green space/Parks

Good public schools

Hereford HS
Hereford MS
Fifth District Elem.
Prettyboy Elem.
Seventh District Elem.
Sparks Elem.

Oella

Originally constructed in the early 1800s as housing for cotton-mill workers, leafy Oella—in Baltimore County—is now one of the region’s most charming, historic enclaves.

Owings Mills

Population: 33,095

Median home price: $218,300

Walk score: 35

Notables: Good housing values, Commuter friendly

Phoenix

Median home price: $472,400

Walk score: 8

Notables: Top-rated schools, Low crime, Green space/Parks

Reisterstown

Population: 25,968

Median home price: $229,200

Walk score: 35

Notables: Historic, Low crime, Good housing values, Green space/Parks

Rodgers Forge

This historic community boasts strong public schools, thriving community organizations, and easy access to shopping and entertainment in Baltimore and Towson.

Population: 3,007

Ruxton

This shady, upscale enclave on the City line with Baltimore County is on the Light Rail line to Hunt Valley, but forget about stopping here. Ruxtonites fought tooth and nail 20 years ago to make sure there was no easy mass-transit access to their neighborhood, with its Gilded-Age megahomes, large lots, and quaint village center. (It’s also home to the exclusive L’Hirondelle country club.) The plaid people with Nantucket stickers on their Lexuses live here, and they want to be left alone.

Population: 3,320

Median home Price: $607,980

Walk score: 37

Bragging rights: A quaint village center and its very own access to I-83 (but no light rail stop, which residents rejected 30 years ago).

Nearby parks: Robert E Lee Park, Lake Roland Park and Essex Farms Park.

Stevenson

Walk score: 25

Notables: Top-rated schools, Low crime, Green space/Parks, Commuter friendly

Towson

A college town situated at the edge of Baltimore City, Towson’s walkable downtown strikes a unique balance, serving students and professionals alike while maintaining the homey feel of leafy residential neighborhoods nearby.

Population: 56,264

Median home price: $369,100

Walk score: 48

Good public schools

Loch Raven HS
Pine Grove MS
Pine Grove Elem.

Carroll County

Hampstead

Hampstead is a Carroll County town just 30 miles northwest of Baltimore that seems straight out of another time. Main Street is reminiscent of quintessential small-town America, with an old-time police station and great antiquing. There are many sprawling farmhouses on Mt. Carmel Road and along Route 30, but also some beautiful Colonial houses built in the 1800s along Main Street.

Population: 3,131

Median home price: $315,484

Walk score: 37

Nearby park: Hampstead Memorial Park.

Sykesville

Sykesville’s proud history shows in the old-town charm of its downtown. Many historical buildings have been repurposed, like the original train depot, now Baldwin’s Station restaurant. Take a break from shopping at the storefront location of nationally recognized Salazon Chocolate Co.

Population: 3,233

Median home price: $343,400

Walk score: 51

Nearby parks: Millard Cooper Park, Sykesville Historic District and Hugh Thomas Wildlife Management Area, Piney Run Park

Good public schools:

Century HS
Liberty HS
Sykesville MS
Oklahoma Road MS
Eldersburg Elem.
Linton Springs Elem.
Piney Ridge Elem.
Mechanicsville Elem.

Taneytown

Population: 3,482

Median home price: $222,100

Walk score: 40

Nearby parks: Taneytown Memorial Park, Roth Recreational Park and Roberts Mill Park.

Notables: Historic, Low crime, Green space/Parks, Good housing values

Westminster

The old part of Westminster proper has kept its historic feel, but just beyond are lots of affordable housing developments and shopping for most every need.

Population: 18,590

Median home price: $282,007

Walk score: 38

Bragging rights: The countryside is at its doorstep and the schools are good, too.

Notables: The Historical Society of Carroll County is at one end and the Carroll Arts Center is at the other. In between is an abundance of boutiques, galleries, and eateries. Gamers will enjoy Gotham Comics, then savor the java at Furnace Hills Coffee Company, which provides jobs to the developmentally disabled.

Woodbine

Median home price: $463,000

Walk score: 18

Harford County

Abingdon

Population: 24,552

Median home price: $227,700

Walk score: 22

Nearby parks: Leight Park and Bush Declaration Natural Resources Management Area.

Notables: Good housing values, Green space/Parks, Low crime

Bel Air

Population: 10,274

Median home price: $309,829

Walk score: 77

Nearby parks: Shamrock Park, Plum Tree Park and Bel Air Park, Harford Glen Park

Notables: Good housing values, Green space/Parks, Low crime

Fallston

Population: 6,593

Median home price: $350,000

Walk score: 3

Notables: Good housing values, Green space/Parks, Low crime

Havre de Grace

Home to the oldest publicly accessible lighthouse in Maryland, Havre de Grace offers plenty of fishing, boating, hiking, and golf, as welll as lots of art galleries.

Population: 10,983

Median home price: $238,900

Walk score: 91

Nearby parks: Havre de Grace Historic District, Jean Roberts Memorial Park and Congress Street Park.

Jarrettsville

Population: 2,919

Median home price: $335,000

Walk score: 43

Nearby park: Jarrettsville Recreation Complex

Notables: Good housing values, Green space/Parks, Low crime

Howard County

Clarksville

Median home price: $648,200

Walk score: 46

Notables: Top-rated schools, Green space/Parks, Low crime

Good public schools:
Glenelg HS
River Hill HS
Folly Quarter MS
Clarksville MS
Lime Kiln MS
Clarksville MS
Clarksville Elem.
Dayton Run Elem.
Pointers Run Elem.
Triadelphia Elem.

Columbia

The streets look the same, the housing looks the same, even the shopping destinations are designed to blend in with the original vision of developer James W. Rouse, who opened the town for business in 1967. Big, garish signage? Forget it. (And good luck finding the signs there are, because they’re so darned understated.) But with a booming, upper-middle-class population of nearly 100,000, Columbia has acquired many of the characteristics of other contemporary U.S. suburbs, such as increasingly large homes and big-box retail stores. Howard County’s top-rated public schools and its proximity to both Baltimore and Washington, D.C., keep this community in high demand for those who can afford it.

Population: 99,615

Median home price: $309,100.

Walk score: 30

Bragging rights: Columbia and the rest of Howard County have among the best public schools in the nation—and the home prices reflect that.

Good public schools:

Atholton HS
Wilde Lake HS
Harper’s Choice MS
Oakland Mills HS
Atholton Elem.
Thunder Hill Elem.

Dayton

Median home price: $636,200

Walk score: 14

Notables: Top-rated schools, Green space/Parks, Low crime

Ellicott City

Nestled on the banks of the Patapsco River, Ellicott City’s walkable 19th-century Main Street remains an uncommon draw for visitors seeking antiques, one-of-a-kind shops, cozy restaurants, and an escape from suburban sprawl.

Population: 65,834

Median home price: $520,000

Walk score: 20

Nearby park: Centennial Park

Notables: Arguably no one does Main Street as well as this Howard County historic enclave, which has even withstood floods. The history can be revisited at the working Wilkins Rogers Mills flour company or the B&O Railroad Station Museum, but most people enjoy the window shopping in this charming center.

Good public schools:

Mt. Hebron HS
Centennial HS
Patapsco MS
Burleigh Manor MS
St. Johns Lane Elem.
Hollifield Station Elem.
Northfield Elem.
Centennial Lane Elem.

Fulton

Fulton, in southern Howard County, which is within spitting distance of both I-95 and the Montgomery County line. (Think good schools, lots of green space, and a doable commute to either Washington or Baltimore.) Homes here sold for 98.2 percent of their asking price, on average, with sales increasing 18.3 percent year over year. That qualifies as hot, right?

Population: 1,951

Median home price: $705,270

Walk score: 28