Best PlacesBirch Harbor, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Birch Harbor, 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.
Birch Harbor ranks 10,949th 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 Birch Harbor
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.
Birch Harbor's strengths and weaknesses
Where Birch Harbor ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 95% of towns
- QuietBetter than 94% of towns
Where Birch Harbor ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 10% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Birch Harbor
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Birch Harbor home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,711, 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 Birch Harbor's effective rate of 0.46%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Birch Harbor
Birch Harbor 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 Birch Harbor.
Who works in Birch Harbor, and how
Work in Birch Harbor centers on construction and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Birch Harbor
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Birch Harbor, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Birch Harbor, month by month
Birch Harbor 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 Birch Harbor
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 204 miles away.
The best schools in and around Birch Harbor
Schools across Birch Harbor average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Conners-emerson SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
- Peninsula SchA+ · 85% proficient
Top high schools
- Sumner Memorial High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Birch Harbor school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Birch Harbor 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 Birch Harbor against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Birch Harbor
Is Birch Harbor a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Birch Harbor ranks 10,949th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and low crime, 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 Birch Harbor expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $247,354. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $66,711 median income, cost of living beats 26% of towns.
Is Birch Harbor safe?
Yes, Birch Harbor is safer than 96% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $145 per resident a year.
Compare Birch Harbor with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Birch Harbor. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Birch Harbor 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.
Birch Harbor detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Birch Harbor: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Birch Harbor: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Birch Harbor: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Birch Harbor: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Birch Harbor 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.