Best Places04430, ME Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 04430, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

04430 ranks 19,712th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.

#19,712
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 04430

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 04430 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

04430's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Cheap car insurance
Top 3%Good schools
Top 10%Short commutes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 04430 with other zip codes.

Where 04430 ranks high

  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • School gradeA, better than 97% of zip codes
  • Short commute17.8 minutes each way, better than 92% of zip codes
  • Air qualityBetter than 89% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than 89% of zip codes

Where 04430 ranks low

  • Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of zip codes
  • Household income$42,170 median, better than only 3% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of zip codes
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 7% of zip codes
  • Local economyBetter than only 9% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 04430

A household needs to earn about $24,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 04430 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $42,170, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$24,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$569
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $87,171 home
Median rent
$450
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$444
Property tax$96
Homeowners insurance$29

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 04430's effective rate of 1.32%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 04430

04430 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
46
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
26%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.2
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1819%
18 to 3415%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6421%
65 and older26%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 04430.


Who works in 04430, and how

Work in 04430 centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
11%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.3%
above the national average
Job growth
−3.1%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Retail trade28%
Health care & social27%
Hospitality & food10%
Education9%
Manufacturing5%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 86%
  • Work from home 11%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in 04430

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across 04430.


What the weather is like in 04430, month by month

04430 sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January30°19°10°
April54°41°30°
July83°70°58°
October61°49°38°

Flying in and out of 04430

The nearest airport, Bangor International, is about 58 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 256 miles away.

Nearest airport
BGR
Bangor International, about 58 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
152nd-busiest in the US, 28 nonstop destinations
Average drive
83 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 04430

Schools across 04430 average an A, better than 97% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 04430 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


04430 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 04430 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 04430

Is 04430 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 04430 ranks 19,712th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and short commutes, and lowest on distance from a big city and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 04430 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $87,171. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $42,170 median income, cost of living beats 6% of zip codes.

Is 04430 safe?

Yes, 04430 is safer than 69% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $246 per resident a year.


Compare 04430 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 04430. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 04430 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

04430 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 04430: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 04430: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 04430: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 04430: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

04430 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.