North Bethesda was named in a new online ranking as the best place to live in Maryland.
The neighborhood data website Niche ranked places in Maryland and the U.S. based on crime rates, public school quality, cost of living, job opportunities and amenities using publicly available information such as U.S. Census data, labor statistics and other sources.
North Bethesda was ranked first; Garrett Park, second; and North Potomac, third; followed by Bethesda and South Kensington in the website’s rankings of the best places to live in Maryland. Kensington was ranked No. 7; Rockville, No. 8; Potomac, No. 11; and Chevy Chase, No. 12 on the list.
Nationally, North Bethesda came in at No. 89, Garret Park at No. 90 and North Potomac at No. 93 in the 2018 list of best places to live in the U.S.
The list represented a slight change from Niche’s 2017 rankings, when North Potomac was listed as the best place to live in Maryland, while North Bethesda came in third. Columbia and Ellicott City in Howard County rounded out the top five in the state last year.
And while some Bethesda Beat commenters continue to maintain that North Bethesda is a southern portion of Rockville, local officials say that’s not the case. North Bethesda’s boundaries have been defined in past county master plans and it’s a census-designated place bound by the southern portion of I-495, to the west by I-270, to the north by Rockville’s city limits and to the east by Rock Creek Park. Rockville is an incorporated city, so its boundaries are defined.