Most Expensive Places To Live In Maryland For 2020

The 10 Most Expensive Places To Live In Maryland For 2020

1. Mount Rainier

The median income in Mount Rainier comes in at $53,869 and the median home value is $336,200 for 2020.

2. College Park

The City of College Park is in Prince George's County, Maryland. The population was 30,413 at the 2010 United States Census. It is best known as the home of the University of Maryland, College Park, and since 1994 the city has also been home to the "Archives II" facility of the U.S. National Archives, as well as to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Center for Weather and Climate Prediction.

The median income in College Park comes in at $67,081 and the median home value is $309,300 for 2020.

3. Gaithersburg

Gaithersburg ), officially the City of Gaithersburg, is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland. At the time of the 2010 U.S. Census, Gaithersburg had a population of 59,933, making it the fourth largest incorporated city in the state, behind Baltimore, Frederick, and Rockville. Gaithersburg is located to the northwest of Washington, D.C., and is considered a suburb and a primary city within the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area. Gaithersburg was incorporated as a town in 1878 and as a city in 1968.

The median income in Gaithersburg comes in at $86,427 and the median home value is $389,700 for 2020.

4. Rockville

Rockville is a U.S. city located in the central region of Montgomery County, Maryland. It is the county seat and is a major incorporated city of Montgomery County and forms part of the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. The 2010 census tabulated Rockville's population at 61,209, making it the third largest incorporated city in Maryland, behind Baltimore and Frederick. Rockville is the largest incorporated city in Montgomery County, Maryland, although the nearby census-designated place of Germantown is more populous.

The median income in Rockville comes in at $105,376 and the median home value is $521,700 for 2020.

5. Annapolis

Annapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland, as well as the county seat of Anne Arundel County. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, 25 miles south of Baltimore and about 30 miles east of Washington, D.C., Annapolis is part of the Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area. Its population was measured at 38,394 by the 2010 census.

The median income in Annapolis comes in at $83,948 and the median home value is $413,300 for 2020.

6. Bladensburg

Bladensburg is a town in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The population was 9,148 at the 2010 census. Areas in Bladensburg have the ZIP code 20710. Bladensburg is 8.6 miles from central Washington, D.C.

The median income in Bladensburg comes in at $43,257 and the median home value is $229,600 for 2020.

Ocean City Maryland, officially the Town of Ocean City, is an Atlantic resort town in Worcester County, Maryland. Ocean City is widely known in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and is a frequent destination for vacationers in that area. The population was 7,102 at the 2010 U.S. Census, although during summer weekends the city hosts between 320,000 and 345,000 vacationers, and up to 8 million visitors annually. During the summer, Ocean City becomes the second most populated municipality in Maryland, after Baltimore. It is part of the Salisbury metropolitan area.

The median income in Ocean City comes in at $54,667 and the median home value is $290,900 for 2020.

8. Takoma Park

Takoma Park is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is a suburb of Washington, D.C., and part of the Washington metropolitan area. Founded in 1883 and incorporated in 1890, Takoma Park, informally called "Azalea City", is a Tree City USA and a nuclear-free zone. A planned commuter suburb, it is situated along the Metropolitan Branch of the historic Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, just northeast of Washington, D.C., and it borders the neighborhood of Takoma, Washington, D.C. It is governed by an elected mayor and six elected councilmembers, who form the city council, and an appointed city manager, under a council-manager style of government. The city's population was 16,715 at the 2010 national census.

The median income in Takoma Park comes in at $86,439 and the median home value is $555,000 for 2020.

9. Easton

Easton, Maryland is an incorporated town and the county seat of Talbot County, Maryland, United States. The population was 15,945 at the 2010 census, with an estimated population in 2015 of 16,617. The primary ZIPCode is 21601, and the secondary is 21606. The primary phone exchange is 822, the auxiliary exchanges are 820, 763, and 770, and the area code is 410.

The median income in Easton comes in at $55,619 and the median home value is $275,400 for 2020.

The median income in Cheste comes in at $39,679 and the median home value is $236,100 for 2020.

How We Determined The Most Expensive Places To Live In The Old Line State For 2020

The two most important things to think about when it comes to being able to afford if you can live comes down to:

1. How much do money do I make?
2. How much do I have spend to live there?

You need to understand your costs in the context of how much money you make.

For example, if the median household earns $100,000 and spends $40,000 on housing it's actually cheaper to live there than a place with a median income of $50,000 and housing costs of $21,000. You might spend more on housing, but you have more money overall to play with.

With that example in mind, we derived several statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2014-2018 around incomes and costs. They are:

• Median Home Price / Median Income (lower is better)
• Median Income / Median Rent (Higher is better)
• Median Home Price

We added simply median home price because high home prices generally correlate with higher expenses for all costs related to homes (heating, electricity, etc).

You can then compare these metrics in each of the places in Maryland to figure out which is the most expensive.

What you are left with is a "Cost of Living Index" by taking the average rank of each of these metrics for each city.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank all of the 41 places in Maryland that have more than 5,000 people.

The place with the highest cost of living in Maryland according to the data is Mount Rainier. You can download the data here.