Best PlacesBrewer, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brewer, 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.
Brewer ranks 6,203rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Brewer
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.
Brewer's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brewer ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute16.9 minutes each way, better than 95% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 93% of towns
Where Brewer ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 6% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 16% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 65 pleasant days a year, better than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brewer
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brewer home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $76,914, 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 Brewer's effective rate of 1.22%, 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 Brewer
Brewer's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Brewer.
Who works in Brewer, and how
Work in Brewer centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Brewer
Brewer has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of towns and more parkland per resident than 93% of towns. The coast is about 33 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Brewer and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brewer, month by month
Brewer sees roughly 65 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 Brewer
The nearest airport, Bangor International, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 202 miles away.
The best schools in and around Brewer
Schools across Brewer average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Brewer Community SchoolA+ · 87% proficient
Top high schools
- Brewer High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brewer school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brewer 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 Brewer against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brewer
Is Brewer a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brewer ranks 6,203rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and short commutes, and lowest on noise and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brewer expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $245,963. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $76,914 median income, cost of living beats 51% of towns.
Is Brewer safe?
Yes, Brewer is safer than 69% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $256 per resident a year.
Compare Brewer with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brewer. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brewer 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.
Brewer detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brewer: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brewer: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brewer: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brewer: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brewer 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.