Kensington Ranks High On Top 100 Best Places To Live

KENSINGTON, MD — What’s the best place to live in Maryland? That depends on who you ask. According to a new set of rankings released by Niche.com, Kensington places in the top-ten best places to live in Maryland, coming in eighth place.

A Kensington resident describes the community as a small suburb with a tight-knit feel, but wishes the town had more diversity. "It has lots of schools and churches etc., and most people are pretty well off (not everyone). It does not have a lot of diversity. And people can pretty much ignore what is going on in the world around them if they want to. There are parks and a pretty nice downtown you can walk to from most parts of town. (Finally got a Chipotle and Five Guys - now there are three places to hang out, including Continental Pizza - at least til 8 pm.)"

Niche.com gave Kensington an A+ in Public Schools, an A+ in Good for Families, a B+ in Diversity, a B in Housing and a C+ in Nightlife.

The suburbs in Montgomery County 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.

Derwood, Olney, Chevy Chase Village, Clarksburg, Cabin John, Poolesville, Damascus, Burtonsville and more also placed on the top 100 list.

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 factor, an overall score was calculated, which was again given a new standardized score.

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

Do you agree with the rankings? Let us know in the comments below!

Photo: thisisbossi/Flickr