Best PlacesMinot, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Minot, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Minot ranks 3,197th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Minot
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.
Minot's strengths and weaknesses
Where Minot ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 95% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
Where Minot ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 64 pleasant days a year, better than only 15% of towns
- Cheap childcare$977 a month, better than only 26% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 31% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 32% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Minot
A household needs to earn about $78,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Minot home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,650, 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 Minot's effective rate of 1.01%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Minot
Minot runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Minot.
Who works in Minot, and how
Work in Minot centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Minot
The coast is about 50 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Minot, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Minot, month by month
Minot sees roughly 64 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 Minot
The nearest airport, Augusta State, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 128 miles away.
The best schools in and around Minot
Schools across Minot average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- East Auburn Community SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Minot Consolidated SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Hebron Station SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bruce M Whittier Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Auburn Middle SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Oxford Hills Middle SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
Top high schools
- Oxford Hills Comprehensive H SA+ · 90% proficient
- Poland Regional H SA+ · 85% proficient
- Edward Little High SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Minot school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Minot 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 Minot against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Minot
Is Minot a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Minot ranks 3,197th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, low crime, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on state infrastructure and the weather. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Minot expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $290,753. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $80,650 median income, cost of living beats 62% of towns.
Is Minot safe?
Yes, Minot is safer than 99% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $127 per resident a year.
Compare Minot with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Minot. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Minot 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.
Minot detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Minot: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Minot: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Minot: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Minot: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Minot 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.