Best PlacesDeer Isle, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Deer Isle, 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.
Deer Isle ranks 17,487th 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 Deer Isle
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.
Deer Isle's strengths and weaknesses
Where Deer Isle ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 96% of towns
- QuietBetter than 92% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 87% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 87% of towns
Where Deer Isle ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,048 a month, better than only 22% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Deer Isle
A household needs to earn about $87,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Deer Isle home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $64,274, 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 Deer Isle's effective rate of 1.04%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Deer Isle
Deer Isle 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 Deer Isle.
Who works in Deer Isle, and how
Work in Deer Isle centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Deer Isle
The coast is about 5 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Deer Isle, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Deer Isle, month by month
Deer Isle sees roughly 78 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 Deer Isle
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 174 miles away.
The best schools in and around Deer Isle
Schools across Deer Isle average an A, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Deer Isle-stonington Elementary SchA · 68% 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 Deer Isle school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Deer Isle 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 Deer Isle against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Deer Isle
Is Deer Isle a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Deer Isle ranks 17,487th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and quiet, 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 Deer Isle expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $321,014. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $64,274 median income, cost of living beats 26% of towns.
Is Deer Isle safe?
Yes, Deer Isle is safer than 67% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $248 per resident a year.
Compare Deer Isle with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Deer Isle. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Deer Isle 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.
Deer Isle detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Deer Isle: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Deer Isle: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Deer Isle: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Deer Isle: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Deer Isle 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.