Community Corner
You won't guess what town came out No. 1 on new "Best Places To Live" List for Maryland.
Niche.com released the 2022 rankings of "Best Places to Live in Maryland." Where does your town or neighborhood fall on the list?
MARYLAND — School rankings website Niche.com has branched out to include towns, and has just published its 2022 ratings for Maryland municipalities.
The top community led the list a year ago, and the top 25 towns and neighborhoods are drawn from the suburbs of Montgomery, Howard and Montgomery counties.
Niche.com uses data from dozens of public sources, including the U.S. Department of Education, FBI's Uniformed Crime Report, and Census Bureau's American Community Survey, to compile a comprehensive assessment of the overall livability of an area.
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Data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Environment Atlas and other sources, as well as thousands of resident reviews, are also used to compile Niche's data.
Here are the website's top 25 Best Places to Live in Maryland in 2022:
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- North Potomac
- South Kensington
- North Bethesda
- Potomac
- Bethesda
- Ellicott City
- Chevy Chase
- Travilah
- Rockville
- Columbia
- Forest Glen
- Scaggsville
- Ilchester
- Urbana
- Brookmont
- Four Corners
- Fulton
- Clarksburg
- Kensington
- Lutherville
- Darnestown
- Takoma Park
- Chevy Chase View
- Olney
- Derwood
Niche graded all the top 25 towns with an "A+," but individual category ratings varied.
Rankings are based on a number of factors, including the cost of living, higher education, housing, public schools, diversity, and nightlife. Each community is then assigned a grade, on an A+-to-D- scale.
The most heavily weighted categories were cost of living and the percentage of residents who have received a bachelor's degree or higher.
Niche based its housing grade on home values, property taxes, housing costs, local schools, and other factors. It accounted for 10 percent of the overall score as did the public school grade, which was based on Niche's own rankings. A town's diversity weighed in as the next most important factor contributing to its final grade, above crime, family friendliness, residents' health, nightlife, walkability, outdoor activities and the job market.
The length of commute factored into the final score, but it was weighted the least.
See the full list here.
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