By Rockwell Rutter, founder of Ugly House Finder, which scores residential property distress from imagery and public records at county scale.
Quick answer: Montgomery County property records are published by the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation at dat.maryland.gov. You can look up a parcel by street address or account number and see assessed value, year built, land and improvement value, and the last transfer of ownership. What the county record will not tell you is the condition the house is in today, which is the gap Ugly House Finder fills.
Where to look up Montgomery County property records
Montgomery County property records are published by the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation at dat.maryland.gov. A Montgomery County property search there lets you look a parcel up by street address or account number, and returns assessed value, year built, land and improvement value, and the last transfer of ownership.
One thing worth knowing: Maryland is unusual in that property assessments are handled by a state agency rather than by the county.
Deeds, mortgages, and liens are held separately by the Montgomery County Circuit Court Clerk, so a full picture of a parcel usually means checking both offices.
What the county record shows, and what it leaves out
A Montgomery County property search answers ownership and value questions well. It will tell you who holds title, what the county thinks the property is worth, when it last sold, and how large the structure is. It will not tell you whether the roof is failing, whether the yard has been left to go wild, whether windows are broken, or whether the house reads as vacant. Assessor data describes a parcel on paper. It does not describe the condition of the house standing on it. That gap is why we built Ugly House Finder: we score visible condition from street-level and aerial imagery, then pair it with the same public records you can pull yourself.
How old is the housing stock in Montgomery County?
The median Montgomery County home was built in 1978, and 52.5 percent of the housing predates 1980. Here is the full breakdown by era, drawn from public property records.
| Era built | Homes | Share of housing |
|---|---|---|
| Before 1940 | 12,540 | 5.2% |
| 1940 to 1959 | 52,929 | 21.8% |
| 1960 to 1979 | 61,963 | 25.5% |
| 1980 to 1999 | 78,471 | 32.3% |
| 2000 or later | 36,825 | 15.2% |
About 5.2 percent of Montgomery County homes were built before 1940 and 27.0 percent before 1960. Those older cohorts are where deferred maintenance, dated systems, and visible neglect concentrate, which is what makes housing age a useful first filter before any scan.
Why housing age predicts distress
Across the homes we have scanned, older housing shows visible neglect far more often than newer housing. In our county research, more than half of the homes built before 1940 showed at least some visible neglect, compared with roughly a third of the homes built since 2000. The age of the housing stock is one of the single most reliable predictors we have measured. You can read the full method and numbers in our distressed property research.
Who owns the housing in Montgomery County?
Ownership matters because homes owned at a distance or through an entity are more likely to see deferred maintenance. Of the residential parcels in the county, about 16.2 percent are held by an absentee owner, meaning the owner’s mailing address is not the property itself, and about 2.0 percent are owned from out of state.
What we can and cannot tell you about Montgomery County yet
We have not scanned this county yet. That is why every number on this page comes from public property records rather than from our imagery scoring. For a modeled distress estimate based on regional data, or an exact verified count, run Montgomery County in the app. Request a scan to get exact, verified numbers for this county. A scan retrieves current street-level imagery for each home, scores it against our distress taxonomy, and returns a ranked, per-property list rather than a county-wide guess.
Finding properties in poor condition in Montgomery County
Run your own scan of any Montgomery County neighborhood, or request a full-county file. Start scanning, or see plans and pricing. For how we measure distress across every market we have studied, read the full research writeup.
Common questions
How do I look up property records in Montgomery County?
Montgomery County property records are published by the Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation at dat.maryland.gov. Search by street address or account number to pull a parcel’s record. There is no charge to search.
What information is in a Montgomery County property record?
A Montgomery County parcel record typically shows assessed value, year built, land and improvement value, and the last transfer of ownership. It does not describe the current physical condition of the house.
Can I search Montgomery County property records by owner name?
Not directly. The Maryland State Department of Assessments and Taxation indexes parcels by street address or account number, so start from the address if you only have a name.
How do I find properties in poor condition in Montgomery County?
Public records will not tell you condition. Ugly House Finder scores visible distress from imagery across Montgomery County and returns a ranked, per-property list. You can run a neighborhood scan yourself or request the full county.