Best PlacesMadawaska, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Madawaska, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Madawaska ranks 10,961st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Madawaska
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.
Madawaska's strengths and weaknesses
Where Madawaska ranks high
- Short commute10.8 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 96% of towns
Where Madawaska ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 12% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Madawaska
A household needs to earn about $43,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Madawaska home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $54,107, 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 Madawaska's effective rate of 1.29%, 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 Madawaska
Madawaska 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 Madawaska.
Who works in Madawaska, and how
Work in Madawaska centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Madawaska
Madawaska has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Madawaska and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Madawaska, month by month
Madawaska sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 6. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 14° | 6° |
| April | 49° | 37° | 28° |
| July | 80° | 67° | 56° |
| October | 56° | 46° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Madawaska
The nearest airport, Presque Isle International, is about 47 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 369 miles away.
The best schools in and around Madawaska
Schools across Madawaska average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Dr Levesque Elementary SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Madawaska Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top high schools
- Madawaska Middle/high SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Wisdom Middle High SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Madawaska school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Madawaska 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 Madawaska against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Madawaska
Is Madawaska a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Madawaska ranks 10,961st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, good schools, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on distance from a big city 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 Madawaska expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $154,565. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $54,107 median income, cost of living beats 26% of towns.
Is Madawaska safe?
Madawaska is safer than 53% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $300 per resident a year.
Compare Madawaska with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Madawaska. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Madawaska 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.
Madawaska detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Madawaska: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Madawaska: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Madawaska: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Madawaska: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Madawaska 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.