Best PlacesEast Madison, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around East Madison, 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.
East Madison ranks 8,759th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in East Madison
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.
East Madison's strengths and weaknesses
Where East Madison ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 93% of towns
Where East Madison ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 23% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 26% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in East Madison
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median East Madison home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,138, 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 East Madison's effective rate of 1.39%, 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 East Madison
East Madison 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 East Madison.
Who works in East Madison, and how
Work in East Madison centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in East Madison
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across East Madison.
What the weather is like in East Madison, month by month
East Madison sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 23° | 13° |
| April | 56° | 43° | 32° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 59° |
| October | 62° | 50° | 40° |
Flying in and out of East Madison
The nearest airport, Augusta State, is about 31 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 179 miles away.
The best schools in and around East Madison
Schools across East Madison average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Canaan Elementary SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Madison Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Margaret Chase Smith Sch - SkowheganA+ · 73% proficient
Top middle schools
- Skowhegan Area Middle SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Madison Junior High SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top high schools
- Skowhegan Area High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Madison Area Memorial H SA+ · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every East Madison school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
East Madison 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 East Madison against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in East Madison
Is East Madison a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, East Madison ranks 8,759th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, 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 East Madison expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $219,490. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $71,138 median income, cost of living beats 52% of towns.
Is East Madison safe?
Yes, East Madison is safer than 93% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $170 per resident a year.
Compare East Madison with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to East Madison. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in East Madison 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.
East Madison detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for East Madison: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in East Madison: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of East Madison: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in East Madison: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
East Madison 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.