Columbia Among Best Places To Live In Maryland: Niche.com

COLUMBIA, MD — What’s the best place to live in Maryland? It depends on who you ask. According to a new set of rankings released by Niche.com, Columbia places in the 100 best places to live in Maryland, coming in No. 2.

"The city itself is so close to major areas (Baltimore, Washington DC, Annapolis, etc.) but the trees and the overall landscape make you feel like you're somewhere else, at least it does to me," one resident said in a review on Niche.com. "I also love that we have a little bit of everything here: every store, mall and restaurant you could ever hope for, and they are five minutes from my house! Yet, with all the trees and natural landscapes, you would never know it."

Several reviewers mentioned the park system as a plus and the lack of nightlife as a drawback.

The suburbs in Howard and Montgomery counties dominated the rankings released April 17. According to Niche.com, these are the best places to live in Maryland:

1. North Potomac
2. Columbia
3. North Bethesda
4. Potomac
5. Ellicott City
6. Darnestown
7. Bethesda
8. Kensington
9. Travilah
10. Rockville

Click here to view the full list.

Niche.com uses data science to evaluate the nation's best neighborhoods and schools annually. It gave Columbia an A+ for public schools, families and diversity; an A for outdoor activities and health/fitness; an A- for nightlife, jobs and commute; a B+ for housing, B- for weather and C+ for cost of living.

To arrive at the rankings, Niche.com took several factors into consideration, such as the quality of local schools, crime rates, housing trends, employment statistics and access to amenities. Niche created a standardized score for each factor and after weighting each, calculated an overall score, which was then standardized.

Finally, Niche.com created a numerical ranking and assigned grades for each place. Click here to read more about the methodology.

• Columbia is Best Place to Live in America for 2016: Money Magazine
• HoCo Ranks Among 'Best Counties to Live' in U.S.: Survey

Columbia came in No. 4 on Niche.com's 2017 rankings of Best Cities to Live in America, which ranked them as follows: No. 1 Ann Arbor, Michigan; No. 2 Naperville, Illinois; and No. 3 Arlington, Virginia.

Do you agree with the rankings? Tell us in the comments!

File photo.