2023 Places With The Lowest Cost of Living In Maryland: New Report

MARYLAND — Maryland is known for the quality of its schools, its strong economy, and the beauty of its waters and mountains.

But its low cost of living? Not so much.

That's not to say there aren't any cheap places to live in the state, just that you will have to travel outside the DC and Baltimore suburbs to find them.

Rankings website Niche.com did all that legwork, and has just published its "2023 Places with the Lowest Cost of Living in Maryland." The neighborhoods on the list are a little less familiar than those home to the state's best schools.

As you would expect, there's a more-or-less inverse relationship between a neighborhood's overall quality and the cost of living there. Niche analysts threaded the Quality of Life/Cost of Living needle to determine the best of the least expensive places to live in Maryland.

At the top of the rankings is Lonaconing, population 1,160, in Allegany County in western Maryland. It was rated A for "Cost of Living," B- for public schools and a B grade overall. Other towns in the mountains and on Chesapeake Bay also ranked high on the list, along with several neighborhoods in Baltimore.

Here's Niche's Top 25 places in Maryland with the lowest cost of living:

1. Lonaconing
2. Westernport
3. Potomac Heights
4. Bowling Green
5. Armistead Gardens, neighborhood in Baltimore
6. La Vale
7. Cumberland
8. Crisfield
9. Bel Air in Allegany County
10. Cherry Hill, neighborhood in Baltimore
11. Arlington, neighborhood in Baltimore
12. Mountain Lake Park
13. Johnston Square, neighborhood in Baltimore
14. Northwest Community Action, neighborhood in Baltimore
15. Parkview/Woodbrook, neighborhood in Baltimore
16. Mondawmin, neighborhood in Baltimore
17. Shipley Hill, neighborhood in Baltimore
18. Perryman
19. Harlem Park, neighborhood in Baltimore
20. Smithsburg
21. Ramblewood, neighborhood in Baltimore
22. Park Circle, neighborhood in Baltimore
23. Lucille Park, neighborhood in Baltimore
24. Frostburg
25. Woodmere