Best PlacesBangor, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Bangor metro, 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.
Photo by GambitMG at English Wikipedia, via commons
Bangor ranks 71st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on good schools and cheap car insurance. The weaker spots are cell coverage, distance from a big city, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in the Bangor metro
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.
The best areas in Bangor
The towns and districts of the Bangor metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Hampden, Carmel & Newport
More households have young kids, fewer homes sit empty, and incomes run higher.
Downtown Bangor
More adults hold degrees, though it is noisier.
Dexter & Glenburn Center
Tree cover is thicker, though commutes are longer.
Old Town & Orono
Health outcomes score higher, though local pay stretches less far.
Milford
Homes cost less, though biking is worse.
Millinocket
Crime runs higher and heat risk is higher.
Lincoln
Big-city amenities are further off.
Bangor shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Bangor's strengths and weaknesses
Bangor ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Good schools is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Cheap car insurance and tree cover follow.
The one real hole is cell coverage, near the bottom of the country. Distance from a big city and state infrastructure also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Bangor ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 93% of metro areas
Where Bangor ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 10% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Bangor
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bangor home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,453, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
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 Bangor's effective rate of 1.16%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bangor
Bangor 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 Bangor.
Who works in Bangor, and how
Work in Bangor centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Bangor
Bangor has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 46 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Bangor and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Bangor growing, and who is moving in?
Bangor has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Portland, OR.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Bangor go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Bangor, month by month
Bangor sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 23° | 12° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 32° |
| July | 84° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Bangor
The nearest airport, Bangor International, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 203 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bangor
Schools across Bangor average an A+, better than 99% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Fourteenth Street SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Fruit Street SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Glenburn Elementary SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
Top middle schools
- William S. Cohen SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Hermon Middle SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Se Do Mo Cha Middle SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
Top high schools
- Bangor High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Old Town High SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Orono High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bangor school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bangor 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 Bangor against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Bangor suits
Common questions about living in Bangor
Is Bangor a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bangor ranks 71st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and tree cover, and lowest on cell coverage and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bangor expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $226,743. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $71,453 median income, cost of living beats 10% of metro areas.
Is Bangor safe?
Yes, Bangor is safer than 98% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $192 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Bangor?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 12. That works out to about 72 pleasant days a year, more than 26% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Bangor?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Hampden, Carmel & Newport, Downtown Bangor, and Dexter & Glenburn Center. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Bangor good for families?
Schools beat 100% of metro areas, crime safety beats 98%, and childcare runs $1,041 a month.
Is Bangor good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 10% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 15% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Bangor with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bangor. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bangor 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.
Bangor detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bangor: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bangor: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bangor: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bangor: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bangor 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.