Best PlacesBernard, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bernard, 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.
Bernard ranks 5,042nd 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 Bernard
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.
Bernard's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bernard 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
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
Where Bernard ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 16% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bernard
A household needs to earn about $100,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bernard home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $87,101, 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 Bernard'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 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 Bernard
Bernard 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 Bernard.
Who works in Bernard, and how
Work in Bernard centers on professional & technical and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Bernard
The coast is about 2 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Bernard, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Bernard, month by month
Bernard 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 Bernard
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 13 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 186 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bernard
Schools across Bernard average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Pemetic Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Tremont Consolidated SchoolA+ · 85% 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 Bernard school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bernard 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 Bernard against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bernard
Is Bernard a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bernard ranks 5,042nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and quiet, 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 Bernard expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $379,648. The overall cost of living runs about 4% above the national average. Set against a $87,101 median income, cost of living beats 57% of towns.
Is Bernard safe?
Yes, Bernard is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $212 per resident a year.
Compare Bernard with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bernard. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bernard 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.
Bernard detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bernard: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bernard: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bernard: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bernard: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bernard 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.