Best PlacesLittle Deer Isle, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Little Deer Isle, 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.
Little Deer Isle ranks 15,041st 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 Little Deer Isle
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.
Little Deer Isle's strengths and weaknesses
Where Little Deer Isle ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA, better than 96% of towns
- Short commute16.4 minutes each way, better than 96% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
Where Little Deer Isle ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 20% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,048 a month, better than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Little Deer Isle
A household needs to earn about $98,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Little Deer Isle home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $65,960, 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 Little Deer Isle's effective rate of 1.04%, 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 Little Deer Isle
Little Deer Isle 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 Little Deer Isle.
Who works in Little Deer Isle, and how
Work in Little Deer Isle centers on agriculture & forestry and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Little Deer Isle
The coast is about 1 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Little Deer Isle, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Little Deer Isle, month by month
Little Deer Isle 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 Little Deer Isle
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 176 miles away.
The best schools in and around Little Deer Isle
Schools across Little Deer Isle average an A, better than 96% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Deer Isle-stonington Elementary SchA · 68% proficient
Top high schools
- Deer Isle-stonington High SchA+ · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Little Deer Isle school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Little Deer Isle 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 Little Deer Isle against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Little Deer Isle
Is Little Deer Isle a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Little Deer Isle ranks 15,041st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and short commutes, 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 Little Deer Isle expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $363,095. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $65,960 median income, cost of living beats 27% of towns.
Is Little Deer Isle safe?
Yes, Little Deer Isle is safer than 71% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $238 per resident a year.
Compare Little Deer Isle with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Little Deer Isle. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Little Deer Isle 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.
Little Deer Isle detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Little Deer Isle: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Little Deer Isle: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Little Deer Isle: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Little Deer Isle: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Little Deer Isle 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.