Best PlacesLewiston, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Lewiston metro, 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.
Photo by Quintin Soloviev, CC BY 4.0, via commons
Lewiston ranks 80th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on good schools and cheap car insurance. The weaker spots are cell coverage, state infrastructure, and transit.
The best neighborhoods in the Lewiston metro
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.
The best areas in Lewiston
The towns and districts of the Lewiston metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Lisbon, Lisbon Falls & Durham
It is quieter, fewer homes sit empty, and more residents vote.
Turner & Minot
Tree cover is thicker, though fewer households have young kids.
Poland
Local pay stretches further, though streets are more car-dependent.
Auburn & Mechanic Falls
Commutes are shorter.
Greene
Scores close to Auburn & Mechanic Falls, except that homes cost less here.
Downtown Lewiston
Biking is better, though incomes run lower.
Scores across Lewiston run from about the 21st to the 98th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Lewiston's strengths and weaknesses
Lewiston ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Good schools is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Cheap car insurance and tree cover follow.
The one real hole is cell coverage, near the bottom of the country. State infrastructure and transit also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Lewiston ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of metro areas
Where Lewiston ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 67 pleasant days a year, better than only 16% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Lewiston
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lewiston home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,289, 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 Lewiston's effective rate of 1.20%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lewiston
Lewiston's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Lewiston.
Who works in Lewiston, and how
Work in Lewiston centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Lewiston
Lewiston has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 42 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lewiston and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Lewiston growing, and who is moving in?
Lewiston has grown about 7% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Portland, OR.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Lewiston go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Lewiston, month by month
Lewiston sees roughly 67 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 23° | 12° |
| April | 56° | 43° | 32° |
| July | 83° | 70° | 58° |
| October | 62° | 50° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Lewiston
The nearest airport, Augusta State, is about 25 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 127 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lewiston
Schools across Lewiston average an A+, better than 99% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Durham Community SchoolA+ · 93% proficient
- Acadia Academy SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Lisbon Community SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
Top middle schools
- Oak Hill Middle SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
- Lewiston Middle SchoolA+ · 69% proficient
Top high schools
- Oak Hill High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Lewiston High SchoolA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lewiston school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lewiston 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 Lewiston against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Lewiston suits
Common questions about living in Lewiston
Is Lewiston a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lewiston ranks 80th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and tree cover, and lowest on cell coverage and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lewiston expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $256,261. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $73,289 median income, cost of living beats 19% of metro areas.
Is Lewiston safe?
Yes, Lewiston is safer than 96% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $212 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lewiston?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 12. That works out to about 67 pleasant days a year, more than 16% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lewiston?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Lisbon, Lisbon Falls & Durham, Turner & Minot, and Poland. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Lewiston good for families?
Schools beat 99% of metro areas, crime safety beats 96%, and childcare runs $979 a month.
Is Lewiston good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 19% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 15% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Lewiston with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lewiston. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lewiston 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.
Lewiston detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lewiston: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lewiston: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lewiston: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lewiston: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lewiston 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.