Best PlacesLittle Machias, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Little Machias, 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 Machias ranks 10,494th 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.
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The best neighborhoods in Little Machias
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 Machias' strengths and weaknesses
Where Little Machias ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 97% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 98% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 92% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
Where Little Machias ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Short commute33.8 minutes each way, better than only 17% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 8% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Little Machias
A household needs to earn about $42,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Little Machias home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,946, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.7% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-08-20 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 Machias' effective rate of 0.89%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Little Machias
Little Machias'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 Little Machias.
Who works in Little Machias, and how
Work in Little Machias centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Little Machias
The coast is about 2 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Little Machias, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Little Machias, month by month
Little Machias 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 Machias
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 59 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 249 miles away.
The best schools in and around Little Machias
Schools across Little Machias average an A+, better than 97% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bay Ridge ElementaryA+ · 80% proficient
Top high schools
- Machias Memorial High SchoolA · 68% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Little Machias school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Little Machias 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 Machias against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Little Machias
Is Little Machias a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Little Machias ranks 10,494th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, a strong job market, and quiet, and lowest on distance from a big city and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Little Machias expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $155,900. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $72,946 median income, cost of living beats 61% of towns.
Is Little Machias safe?
Yes, Little Machias is safer than 92% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $169 per resident a year.
Compare Little Machias with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Little Machias. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Little Machias 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 Machias detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Little Machias: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Little Machias: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Little Machias: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Little Machias: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Little Machias 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.