Best PlacesFort Fairfield, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Fort Fairfield, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Fort Fairfield ranks 8,325th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Fort Fairfield
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.
Fort Fairfield's strengths and weaknesses
Where Fort Fairfield ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 97% of towns
- Short commute17.8 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 87% of towns
Where Fort Fairfield ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 6% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 66 pleasant days a year, better than only 17% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Fort Fairfield
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fort Fairfield home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,898, 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 Fort Fairfield's effective rate of 0.89%, 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 Fort Fairfield
Fort Fairfield 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 Fort Fairfield.
Who works in Fort Fairfield, and how
Work in Fort Fairfield centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Fort Fairfield
Fort Fairfield has more restaurants and bars per resident than 88% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Fort Fairfield and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Fort Fairfield, month by month
Fort Fairfield sees roughly 66 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 6. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 16° | 6° |
| April | 51° | 39° | 28° |
| July | 82° | 68° | 56° |
| October | 59° | 47° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Fort Fairfield
The nearest airport, Presque Isle International, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 342 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fort Fairfield
Schools across Fort Fairfield average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Easton Elementary SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Fort Fairfield Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Caribou Community SchoolA+ · 82% proficient
Top middle schools
- Presque Isle Middle SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
Top high schools
- Easton Junior-senior High SchA+ · 95% proficient
- Fort Fairfield Middle/high SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fort Fairfield school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fort Fairfield 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 Fort Fairfield against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Fort Fairfield
Is Fort Fairfield a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fort Fairfield ranks 8,325th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and clean air, and lowest on distance from a big city and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fort Fairfield expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $164,636. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $70,898 median income, cost of living beats 66% of towns.
Is Fort Fairfield safe?
Yes, Fort Fairfield is safer than 70% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $239 per resident a year.
Compare Fort Fairfield with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fort Fairfield. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fort Fairfield 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.
Fort Fairfield detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fort Fairfield: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fort Fairfield: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fort Fairfield: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fort Fairfield: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fort Fairfield 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.