Best PlacesCathance, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Cathance, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Cathance ranks 1,224th 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 Cathance
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.
Cathance's strengths and weaknesses
Where Cathance ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 95% of towns
Where Cathance ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 11% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Cathance
A household needs to earn about $103,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Cathance home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $130,991, 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 Cathance's effective rate of 0.92%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Cathance
Cathance 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 Cathance.
Who works in Cathance, and how
Work in Cathance centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 71%
- Work from home 28%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Cathance
The coast is about 31 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Cathance, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Cathance, month by month
Cathance sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 26° | 15° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 32° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Cathance
The nearest airport, Augusta State, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 130 miles away.
The best schools in and around Cathance
Schools across Cathance average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bowdoinham Community SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Woolwich Central SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bath Middle SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Mt Ararat Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top high schools
- Morse High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Mt Ararat High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Cathance school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Cathance 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 Cathance against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Cathance
Is Cathance a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Cathance ranks 1,224th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and low crime, and lowest on state infrastructure and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Cathance expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $388,263. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $130,991 median income, cost of living beats 95% of towns.
Is Cathance safe?
Yes, Cathance is safer than 97% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $144 per resident a year.
Compare Cathance with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Cathance. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Cathance 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.
Cathance detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Cathance: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Cathance: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Cathance: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Cathance: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Cathance 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.