Best PlacesAtlantic, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Atlantic, 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.
Atlantic ranks 5,222nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Atlantic
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.
Atlantic's strengths and weaknesses
Where Atlantic ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of towns
Where Atlantic ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Atlantic
A household needs to earn about $103,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Atlantic home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $88,750, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Atlantic's effective rate of 0.83%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Atlantic
Atlantic runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Atlantic.
Who works in Atlantic, and how
Work in Atlantic centers on agriculture & forestry and hospitality & food. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Atlantic
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Atlantic, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Atlantic, month by month
Atlantic sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 25° | 16° |
| April | 53° | 42° | 32° |
| July | 79° | 67° | 58° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Atlantic
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 181 miles away.
The best schools in and around Atlantic
Schools across Atlantic average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Swans Island Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Top high schools
- Mt Desert Island High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Atlantic school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Atlantic 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 Atlantic against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Atlantic
Is Atlantic a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Atlantic ranks 5,222nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and quiet, and lowest on an overheated housing market and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Atlantic expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $393,300. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $88,750 median income, cost of living beats 59% of towns.
Is Atlantic safe?
Atlantic is safer than 53% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $289 per resident a year.
Compare Atlantic with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Atlantic. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Atlantic 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.
Atlantic detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Atlantic: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Atlantic: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Atlantic: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Atlantic: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Atlantic 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.