Best PlacesBath, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bath, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bath ranks 7,217th 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 Bath
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.
Bath's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bath ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 92% of towns
Where Bath ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 20% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 24% of towns
- Cheap childcare$965 a month, better than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bath
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bath home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $77,104, 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 Bath's effective rate of 1.12%, 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 Bath
Bath 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 Bath.
Who works in Bath, and how
Work in Bath centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 70%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Bath
Bath has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of towns. The coast is about 17 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Bath and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bath, month by month
Bath sees roughly 74 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 Bath
The nearest airport, Augusta State, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 122 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bath
Schools across Bath average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- West Bath SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Georgetown Central SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Harriet Beecher Stowe ElementaryA+ · 82% proficient
Top middle schools
- Brunswick Jr High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Bath Middle SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Mt Ararat Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top high schools
- Brunswick High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Morse High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Mt Ararat High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bath school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bath 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 Bath against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bath
Is Bath a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bath ranks 7,217th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and biking, and lowest on an overheated housing market and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bath expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $338,505. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $77,104 median income, cost of living beats 52% of towns.
Is Bath safe?
Yes, Bath is safer than 58% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $282 per resident a year.
Compare Bath with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bath. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bath 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.
Bath detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bath: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bath: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bath: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bath: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bath 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.