Within a close drive of any particular employment center, a company will find the region's workforce living in dozens of residential settings that include both recently-built homes and established neighborhoods. A number of areas feature waterfront properties. All types of housing—detached single family houses, townhouses, duplexes, and condominiums—are available in wide price ranges across the state. Affordable apartments offer alternative housing under lease terms.

For 2007, the median price for settled residential sales was $307,894 for Maryland, ranging from $102,500 in Western Maryland (Allegany County) to $444,000 in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. (Montgomery County). Housing in the Baltimore metropolitan area is generally lower than other northeast and west coast metro areas, ranging from $153,000 in Baltimore City to $390,000 in Howard County.

Additional quality of life data for states, Maryland counties and major metro areas can be found in the Comparisons Tool .