Best PlacesBrooklin, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brooklin, 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.
Brooklin ranks 8,051st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Brooklin
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.
Brooklin's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brooklin ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 91% of towns
Where Brooklin ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brooklin
A household needs to earn about $90,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brooklin home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $69,123, 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 Brooklin's effective rate of 0.68%, 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 Brooklin
Brooklin 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 Brooklin.
Who works in Brooklin, and how
Work in Brooklin centers on construction and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Brooklin
The coast is about 5 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Brooklin, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brooklin, month by month
Brooklin 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 Brooklin
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 15 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 181 miles away.
The best schools in and around Brooklin
Schools across Brooklin average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Brooklin SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Blue Hill Consolidated SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Sedgwick Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top high schools
- Deer Isle-stonington High SchA+ · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brooklin school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brooklin 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 Brooklin against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brooklin
Is Brooklin a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brooklin ranks 8,051st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and quiet, and lowest on state infrastructure and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brooklin expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $351,227. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $69,123 median income, cost of living beats 28% of towns.
Is Brooklin safe?
Yes, Brooklin is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $204 per resident a year.
Compare Brooklin with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brooklin. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brooklin 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.
Brooklin detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brooklin: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brooklin: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brooklin: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brooklin: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brooklin 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.