Best PlacesAlna Center, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Alna Center, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Alna Center ranks 2,477th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Alna Center
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.
Alna Center's strengths and weaknesses
Where Alna Center ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of towns
Where Alna Center ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$964 a month, better than only 27% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Alna Center
A household needs to earn about $99,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Alna Center home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $93,125; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Alna Center's effective rate of 1.04%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Alna Center
Alna Center's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Alna Center.
Who works in Alna Center, and how
Work in Alna Center centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Alna Center
The coast is about 34 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Alna Center, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Alna Center, month by month
Alna Center sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 26° | 15° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 32° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Alna Center
The nearest airport, Augusta State, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 137 miles away.
The best schools in and around Alna Center
Schools across Alna Center average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Great Salt Bay Community SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Whitefield Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top high schools
- Wiscasset Middle/high SchoolA · 78% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Alna Center school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Alna Center 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 Alna Center against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Alna Center
Is Alna Center a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Alna Center ranks 2,477th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, good schools, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on an overheated housing market and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Alna Center expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $367,400. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $93,125 median income, cost of living beats 64% of towns.
Is Alna Center safe?
Yes, Alna Center is safer than 100% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $109 per resident a year.
Compare Alna Center with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Alna Center. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Alna Center 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.
Alna Center detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Alna Center: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Alna Center: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Alna Center: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Alna Center: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Alna Center detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.