Best PlacesHallowell, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hallowell, 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.
Hallowell ranks 8,159th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hallowell
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.
Hallowell's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hallowell ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Short commute14.3 minutes each way, better than 98% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
Where Hallowell ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 14% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,035 a month, better than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hallowell
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hallowell home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $67,594, 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 Hallowell's effective rate of 1.34%, 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 Hallowell
Hallowell 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 Hallowell.
Who works in Hallowell, and how
Work in Hallowell centers on public administration and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Hallowell
Hallowell has more restaurants and bars per resident than 89% of towns. The coast is about 43 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Hallowell and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hallowell, month by month
Hallowell sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 24° | 15° |
| April | 57° | 44° | 34° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Hallowell
The nearest airport, Augusta State, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 146 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hallowell
Schools across Hallowell average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Manchester Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Top middle schools
- Winthrop Middle SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Gardiner Regional Middle SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Cony Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
Top high schools
- Hall-dale Middle And High SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- ConyA+ · 83% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hallowell school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hallowell 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 Hallowell against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hallowell
Is Hallowell a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hallowell ranks 8,159th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and short commutes, and lowest on noise 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 Hallowell expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $305,950. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $67,594 median income, cost of living beats 36% of towns.
Is Hallowell safe?
Yes, Hallowell is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $221 per resident a year.
Compare Hallowell with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hallowell. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hallowell 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.
Hallowell detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hallowell: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hallowell: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hallowell: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hallowell: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hallowell 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.