Best PlacesPalmyra, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Palmyra, 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.
Palmyra ranks 20,651st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and health outcomes rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Palmyra
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.
Palmyra's strengths and weaknesses
Where Palmyra ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 95% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 90% of towns
Where Palmyra ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 8% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Palmyra
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Palmyra home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,095, 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 Palmyra'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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Palmyra
Palmyra runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Palmyra.
Who works in Palmyra, and how
Work in Palmyra centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Palmyra
The coast is about 50 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Palmyra, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Palmyra, month by month
Palmyra sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 23° | 12° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 32° |
| July | 84° | 71° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Palmyra
The nearest airport, Bangor International, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 191 miles away.
The best schools in and around Palmyra
Schools across Palmyra average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sebasticook Valley Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Margaret Chase Smith Sch - SkowheganA+ · 73% proficient
- Somerset Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
Top middle schools
- Skowhegan Area Middle SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Warsaw Middle SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
- Nokomis Regional Middle SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
Top high schools
- Skowhegan Area High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Nokomis Regional High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Palmyra school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Palmyra 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 Palmyra against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Palmyra
Is Palmyra a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Palmyra ranks 20,651st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and low crime, and lowest on health outcomes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Palmyra expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $163,760. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $61,095 median income, cost of living beats 24% of towns.
Is Palmyra safe?
Yes, Palmyra is safer than 96% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $147 per resident a year.
Compare Palmyra with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Palmyra. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Palmyra 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.
Palmyra detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Palmyra: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Palmyra: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Palmyra: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Palmyra: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Palmyra 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.