Best PlacesGouldsboro, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gouldsboro, 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.
Gouldsboro ranks 12,860th 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 Gouldsboro
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.
Gouldsboro's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gouldsboro ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 98% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- QuietBetter than 93% of towns
Where Gouldsboro ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gouldsboro
A household needs to earn about $70,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gouldsboro home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $64,687; 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 Gouldsboro's effective rate of 0.52%, 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 Gouldsboro
Gouldsboro 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 Gouldsboro.
Who works in Gouldsboro, and how
Work in Gouldsboro centers on construction and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Gouldsboro
The coast is about 17 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Gouldsboro, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Gouldsboro, month by month
Gouldsboro sees roughly 77 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 Gouldsboro
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 15 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 208 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gouldsboro
Schools across Gouldsboro average an A, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Conners-emerson SchoolA+ · 97% proficient
- Cherryfield ElementaryA+ · 88% proficient
- Peninsula SchA+ · 85% proficient
Top high schools
- Sumner Memorial High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gouldsboro school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gouldsboro 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 Gouldsboro against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gouldsboro
Is Gouldsboro a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gouldsboro ranks 12,860th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and low crime, 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 Gouldsboro expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $277,299. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $64,687 median income, cost of living beats 23% of towns.
Is Gouldsboro safe?
Yes, Gouldsboro is safer than 95% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $158 per resident a year.
Compare Gouldsboro with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gouldsboro. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gouldsboro 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.
Gouldsboro detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gouldsboro: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gouldsboro: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gouldsboro: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gouldsboro: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gouldsboro 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.