Best PlacesFairlee, MD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fairlee, 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.
Fairlee ranks 28,783rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Fairlee
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.
Fairlee's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fairlee ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 81% of towns
Where Fairlee ranks low
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fairlee
A household needs to earn about $94,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fairlee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $84,820; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Fairlee's effective rate of 0.82%, 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 Fairlee
Fairlee 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 Fairlee.
Who works in Fairlee, and how
Work in Fairlee centers on manufacturing and professional & technical. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Fairlee
The coast is about 13 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Fairlee, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fairlee, month by month
Fairlee sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 43, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs April through June, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 43° | 36° | 30° |
| April | 65° | 56° | 47° |
| July | 88° | 80° | 72° |
| October | 69° | 60° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Fairlee
Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall sits about 28 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 12.3 million passengers in 2025, with 114 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Fairlee
Schools across Fairlee average a C−, better than 21% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rock Hall ElementaryD · 20% proficient
- H. H. Garnett ElementaryD− · 14% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kent County Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Kent County HighB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fairlee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fairlee 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 Fairlee against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fairlee
Is Fairlee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fairlee ranks 28,783rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, health care access, and big-city access, and lowest on taxes 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 Fairlee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $357,434. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $84,820 median income, cost of living beats 81% of towns.
Is Fairlee safe?
Fairlee is safer than 8% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $802 per resident a year.
Compare Fairlee with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fairlee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fairlee 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.
Fairlee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fairlee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fairlee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fairlee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fairlee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fairlee 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.