Moving to
Essex.

All Essex data Compare Essex

40,580people live here $67,168median household income▼ 17% below US $1,319median rent per monthNear US average $258,900median home value▼ 22% below US

Essex is an unincorporated community in Baltimore County, MD. It has no city government: the county runs it, and the Census counts it as its own place.

What it's like to live in Essex

Essex is an unincorporated community in Maryland with home prices that remain within reach and schools with class sizes near the national average. Those factors carry real weight for anyone weighing where to move next.

The tradeoffs are worth naming plainly. Essex deals with household incomes below the national average, commute times longer than most cities, air quality that falls short of national benchmarks, and college degree attainment below the national average.

The good

Affordable home prices
Average class sizes

The not so good

Below-average household incomes
Above-average commute times
Air quality concerns
Low college degree attainment
High rent burden for renters

How Essex compares

Median household income

Essex$67,168

Maryland avg$103,678

US$80,734

Median rent (per month)

Essex$1,319

Maryland avg$1,705

US$1,413

Median home value

Essex$258,900

Maryland avg$419,900

US$332,700

What it takes to move to Essex

Based on Essex's median rent, home value and household income

To rent

$2,638

up front: first month plus a typical one-month deposit

Income to keep rent under 30%: $52,760 a year
56% of Essex renters spend 30% or more of their income on rent

To buy

$51,780

a 20% down payment on the median home

With 10% down: $25,890
Homes cost 3.9× the typical local household income (US: 4.1×)

Moving costs, closing costs and taxes not included.

The details

Cost of livingNear US average

$1,319/mo median rent

Cost of living works in this city's favor. Median rent sits around $1,319 a month, nothing that raises eyebrows. Solid value overall. Home prices are reasonable, with a median around $258,900. Not a steal, but not intimidating either.

Median home value $258,900 · 56% of renters cost-burdened

Job market

4.0% county unemployment

Unemployment in Baltimore County is 4.0%, close to the national average of 4.3%. That's the county-wide rate; BLS doesn't measure a place this size on its own.

Baltimore County (county-wide)

Safety

401 violent crimes per 100k, whole jurisdiction

Essex doesn't have its own police department, so there's no crime rate for it alone. The figures shown are for the Baltimore County Police Department jurisdiction as a whole, which runs above the national average for violent crime and covers many communities. Individual neighborhoods can differ a lot from that overall rate.

Property crime 2400/100k · Policed by Baltimore County Police Department (county-wide rate) · 2025 data

Getting around▲ 13% above US

29 min average commute

Commutes run about average, at 29.4 minutes. Fine day to day, but it adds up over a year, and where someone lives relative to where they work starts to matter. 9 in 10 workers drive to work; 8% work from home.

How workers get to work

Drive alone

73%

Carpool

12%

Work from home

7.5%

Public transit

4.1%

Other

2.1%

Walk

1.1%

Climate

Summers are warm, with highs around 88°F, and winters are chilly but manageable, with lows around 32°F. Rainfall is regular throughout the year.

Average month

High °FLow °FPrecip (in)

30-year averages, 1991–2020

Education & workforce▼ 45% below US

20% bachelor's degree or higher

This is a working-class city, and college degree rates reflect that. Trades, manufacturing, and service industries tend to dominate the local economy, which is a strength for some fields and a real constraint for others.

Schools

12 public schools inside the boundary

There are 12 public schools inside the boundary and 1 private school. The student-to-teacher ratio is 15:1, close to the national average of 16:1. Smaller class sizes are generally a positive sign for a district.

Parks & recreation

The nearest national park or historic site is Fort McHenry National Monument and Historic Shrine (6 miles away). There are 8 national parks and sites within a day's drive.

Bottom line

Essex's strongest point is home prices that remain within reach; the main tradeoffs are household incomes below the national average and commute times longer than most cities. A year of median rent ($1,319/mo) equals 24% of the median household income here, more than the 21% typical nationwide. Whether it fits comes down to the specifics: the neighborhood, the job, and what matters most in the move.

See all the data for Essex →·All Maryland cities →