The 10 Best Places To Buy A House In Maryland For 2022


Using science and data, we can tell you which places in Maryland have seen home prices rising and people flocking over the past year.

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Editor’s note: This is not investment advice and we are not financial advisers. Article updated for 2022.

There's a the age old question everyone thinks about when they decide to move to a city in Maryland:

Should I buy a place or rent? Well, we aren't here today to solve that problem for you exactly. We are just assuming you'll do the right thing and a buy a place. And while we are happy to tell you the best place to live in Maryland, this analysis is going to tackle the question of the best place to buy a house as an investor. That is we are going to try and determine the up and coming cities in the Old Line State.

To do that we are going to look at places in Maryland that are growing faster than average, but where home prices are below average. In every day terms, the "deals". The best deal in Maryland at the moment? That would be Cheste according to our analysis.

Here's a look at the top ten places to buy a home in Maryland for 2022.

What's the best place to buy a home in Maryland for 2022? According to our analysis, would the the ideal place to buy a home looking into the future.

The methodology that wen't into this can be a bit complicated, so we'll break it down for you in as much detail as we can below. If you're not worried about finding a deal on good places to live, check out the most expensive places to live in Maryland and, for those of you on a budget, the cheapest places to live in Maryland.

For more Maryland reading, check out:

The 10 Best Cities To Buy A House In Maryland For 2022

1. Cheste

Source: Public Domain
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 5,073
Median Home Price: $260,600
Population Change: -0.3%
Home Price Change: 7.4%
More on Cheste: Homes For Sale | Data

2. Poolesville

Poolesville, MD

Source: Wikipedia User Famartin | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 5,228
Median Home Price: $520,800
Population Change: 0.7%
Home Price Change: 9.6%
More on Poolesville: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

3. Fruitland

Fruitland, MD

Source: Wikipedia User User:Fbot | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Population: 5,281
Median Home Price: $165,300
Population Change: 0.7%
Home Price Change: -1.9%
More on Fruitland: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

4. Chesapeake Beach

Chesapeake Beach, MD

Source: Wikipedia User PierreSelim | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 5,996
Median Home Price: $368,600
Population Change: 0.6%
Home Price Change: 8.9%
More on Chesapeake Beach: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

5. District Heights

District Heights, MD

Source: Flickr User aboutmytripdotcom | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 5,996
Median Home Price: $267,300
Population Change: -0.1%
Home Price Change: 6.2%
More on District Heights: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

6. Glenarden

Glenarden, MD

Source: Flickr User MDGovpics | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 6,158
Median Home Price: $297,400
Population Change: 0.3%
Home Price Change: 7.6%
More on Glenarden: Homes For Sale | Data

7. Walkersville

Walkersville, MD

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 6,306
Median Home Price: $323,100
Population Change: 2.1%
Home Price Change: 11.1%
More on Walkersville: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

8. Brunswick

Brunswick, MD

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 6,364
Median Home Price: $245,000
Population Change: 1.7%
Home Price Change: 3.0%
More on Brunswick: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

9. Hampstead

Hampstead, MD

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 6,403
Median Home Price: $245,700
Population Change: 0.6%
Home Price Change: 0.0%
More on Hampstead: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

10. Cheverly

Cheverly, MD

Source: Wikipedia User Famartin | CC BY-SA 4.0
Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 6,439
Median Home Price: $367,800
Population Change: 0.1%
Home Price Change: 4.3%
More on Cheverly: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data

Methodology: How do you determine the best places to buy a home in Maryland for 2022?

We were in real estate for almost five years and have been working on this site for another three. Suffice is to say, we've put a lot of thought into what goes into finding a good place to buy a home.

So all that thinking has come to this moment where we get to spell out how we'd approach finding an up-and-coming place to live in Maryland. Put differently, the analysis will try to find places in Maryland with undervalued homes relative to pent up demand.

Best Counties To Live In Maryland

To do that we looked at the most recent American Community Survey Census data for 2016-2020 and compared it to the previous vintage (2012-2016). Specifically, we used the following criteria:

  • Y-o-Y Change In Population (People want to live here)
  • Y-o-Y Change In Median Home Prices (People are willing to pay for it)
  • Home Prices Relative To The State Average (It's still kinda cheap)

We want places that are growing, have seen home prices increase in recent years, and are still "cheap" for Maryland with the following caveats:

So of the 0 cities and towns in Maryland, only 41 places made it through our initial filters to even be considered.

We then ranked each place from 1 to 41 for the criteria mentioned above with 1 being the best for that criteria. We averaged the rankings to create a "best place to buy" index with the place having the lowest index being the best. You can download the data here.

Turns out that Cheste is the best potential gem in the not-so-rough in the Old Line State.

Read on for more on these places.

Summary: The Best Places To Purchase A House In Maryland for 2022

There's our analysis of the best places to buy a house in Maryland. And, to be clear, we aren't necessarily saying these places are the best places to live, just that it looks like they might be in a couple of years based on the data.

In fact, every place in the following table meets our criteria, so even though it may not look super long, remember we started off with all 0 places in the state.

So if we'd could rent or buy in these cities, we'd definitely buy.

For more Maryland reading, check out:

Home Prices By City In Maryland

City Rank Median Home Price Population Change Home Price Increase
Cheste 1 $260,600 -0.3% 7.4%
Poolesville 2 $520,800 0.7% 9.6%
Fruitland 3 $165,300 0.7% -1.9%
Chesapeake Beach 4 $368,600 0.6% 8.9%
District Heights 5 $267,300 -0.1% 6.2%
Glenarden 6 $297,400 0.3% 7.6%
Walkersville 7 $323,100 2.1% 11.1%
Brunswick 8 $245,000 1.7% 3.0%
Hampstead 9 $245,700 0.6% 0.0%
Cheverly 10 $367,800 0.1% 4.3%
Thurmont 11 $263,900 2.2% 6.6%
Taneytown 12 $258,800 0.7% 2.4%
Ocean City 13 $292,100 -0.2% -2.1%
Riverdale Park 14 $340,900 0.3% 3.7%
Mount Rainier 15 $398,200 0.5% 12.4%
Frostburg 16 $144,300 -0.5% 3.8%
Bladensburg 17 $277,400 0.3% 8.7%
Mount Airy 18 $387,800 0.4% 4.4%
La Plata 19 $333,000 1.5% 0.9%
Bel Air 20 $256,400 0.3% 4.5%
Cambridge 21 $173,800 -0.6% 6.5%
New Carrollton 22 $287,000 -0.1% 5.9%
Havre De Grace 23 $284,200 1.1% -1.1%
Elkton 24 $211,800 0.1% 8.7%
Aberdeen 25 $192,400 0.4% -6.6%
Easton 26 $276,000 -0.0% -0.3%
Takoma Park 27 $611,400 0.2% 4.7%
Hyattsville 28 $355,000 0.1% 5.6%
Westminster 29 $241,600 0.5% -0.5%
Cumberland 30 $104,200 -0.8% 10.7%
Greenbelt 31 $225,900 0.1% -0.7%
Laurel 32 $281,500 -0.1% 4.6%
College Park 33 $345,800 0.2% 4.7%
Salisbury 34 $167,800 0.5% 5.7%
Annapolis 35 $414,000 0.1% -1.5%
Hagerstown 36 $160,000 -0.3% 2.8%
Bowie 37 $350,000 -0.6% 3.5%
Gaithersburg 38 $413,500 0.2% 5.4%
Rockville 39 $540,100 0.9% 0.0%
Frederick 40 $277,300 1.3% 2.6%
Baltimore 41 $167,300 -1.1% 4.5%
Download The Entire Maryland Ranking Data

How Is The Area In ?

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

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