Best PlacesCalais, VT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Calais, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Calais ranks 21,376th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Calais
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.
Calais' strengths and weaknesses
Where Calais ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 92% of towns
Where Calais ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,417 a month, better than only 5% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Calais
A household needs to earn about $95,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Calais home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $76,700, 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 Calais' effective rate of 1.52%, 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 Calais
Calais 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 Calais.
Who works in Calais, and how
Work in Calais centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Calais
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Calais.
What the weather is like in Calais, month by month
Calais sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 20° | 10° |
| April | 56° | 42° | 30° |
| July | 83° | 69° | 56° |
| October | 62° | 49° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Calais
The nearest airport, Patrick Leahy Burlington International, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 159 miles away.
The best schools in and around Calais
Schools across Calais average a C+, better than 48% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Monroe Consolidated SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Lisbon Regional School (high)C · 34% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Calais school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Calais 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 Calais against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Calais
Is Calais a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Calais ranks 21,376th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, civic engagement, and tree cover, and lowest on cell coverage and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Calais expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $331,389. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $76,700 median income, cost of living beats 37% of towns.
Is Calais safe?
Yes, Calais is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $220 per resident a year.
Compare Calais with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Calais. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Calais 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.
Calais detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Calais: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Calais: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Calais: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Calais: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Calais 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.