Best PlacesCrescent Lake, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Crescent Lake, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Crescent Lake ranks 12,584th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Crescent Lake
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.
Crescent Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Crescent Lake ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 90% of towns
Where Crescent Lake ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Short commute36.9 minutes each way, better than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,229 a month, better than only 13% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Crescent Lake
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Crescent Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $72,094, 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 Crescent Lake's effective rate of 0.85%, 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 Crescent Lake
Crescent Lake 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 Crescent Lake.
Who works in Crescent Lake, and how
Work in Crescent Lake 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 70%
- Work from home 27%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Crescent Lake
The coast is about 45 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Crescent Lake, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Crescent Lake, month by month
Crescent Lake sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 23° | 12° |
| April | 56° | 43° | 32° |
| July | 83° | 70° | 58° |
| October | 62° | 50° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Crescent Lake
The nearest airport, Portland International Jetport, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 115 miles away.
The best schools in and around Crescent Lake
Schools across Crescent Lake average an A+, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Raymond Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Songo Locks SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Jordan-small Middle SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Lake Region Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
Top high schools
- Lake Region High SchoolA · 78% proficient
- Windham High SchoolA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Crescent Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Crescent Lake 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 Crescent Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Crescent Lake
Is Crescent Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Crescent Lake ranks 12,584th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and tree cover, 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 Crescent Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $348,639. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $72,094 median income, cost of living beats 31% of towns.
Is Crescent Lake safe?
Yes, Crescent Lake is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $220 per resident a year.
Compare Crescent Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Crescent Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Crescent Lake 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.
Crescent Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Crescent Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Crescent Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Crescent Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Crescent Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Crescent Lake 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.