Best PlacesOrrs Island, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Orrs Island, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Orrs Island ranks 1,602nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Orrs Island
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.
Orrs Island's strengths and weaknesses
Where Orrs Island ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
Where Orrs Island ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,229 a month, better than only 13% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 73 pleasant days a year, better than only 33% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Orrs Island
A household needs to earn about $149,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Orrs Island home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $115,391, 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 Orrs Island's effective rate of 0.55%, 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 Orrs Island
Orrs Island 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 Orrs Island.
Who works in Orrs Island, and how
Work in Orrs Island centers on hospitality & food and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Orrs Island
The coast is about 2 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Orrs Island, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Orrs Island, month by month
Orrs Island sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 26° | 15° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 32° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Orrs Island
The nearest airport, Portland International Jetport, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 110 miles away.
The best schools in and around Orrs Island
Schools across Orrs Island average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Harpswell Community SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mt Ararat Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top high schools
- Mt Ararat High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Orrs Island school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Orrs Island 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 Orrs Island against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Orrs Island
Is Orrs Island a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Orrs Island ranks 1,602nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, health care access, and cheap car insurance, 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 Orrs Island expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $589,600. The overall cost of living runs about 12% above the national average. Set against a $115,391 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Orrs Island safe?
Yes, Orrs Island is safer than 78% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $217 per resident a year.
Compare Orrs Island with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Orrs Island. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Orrs Island 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.
Orrs Island detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Orrs Island: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Orrs Island: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Orrs Island: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Orrs Island: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Orrs Island 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.