Best PlacesPenobscot County, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Penobscot County, 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.
Penobscot County ranks 421st of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on good schools and cheap car insurance. The weaker spots are state infrastructure, an overheated housing market, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in Penobscot County
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.
The best areas in Penobscot County
The parts of Penobscot County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Hampden, Carmel & Newport
More households have young kids, fewer homes sit empty, and incomes run higher.
Bangor & Brewer
More adults hold degrees, though it is noisier.
Dexter & Glenburn Center
Tree cover is thicker, though commutes are longer.
Old Town & Orono
Health outcomes score higher, though local pay stretches less far.
Milford
Homes cost less, though biking is worse.
Millinocket
Crime runs higher and heat risk is higher.
Lincoln
Big-city amenities are further off.
Penobscot County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Penobscot County's strengths and weaknesses
Penobscot County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Good schools is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Cheap car insurance and low crime follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. State infrastructure, an overheated housing market, and childcare costs hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Penobscot County ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than 99% of counties
- Tree shadeBetter than 92% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than 90% of counties
Where Penobscot County ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 7% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 11% of counties
- Cheap childcare$1,041 a month, better than only 15% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than only 20% of counties
- Low property taxBetter than only 21% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Penobscot County
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Penobscot County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,453, 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 Penobscot County's effective rate of 1.16%, 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 Penobscot County
Penobscot County 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 Penobscot County.
Who works in Penobscot County, and how
Work in Penobscot County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Penobscot County
Penobscot County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and more parkland per resident than 68% of counties. The coast is about 46 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Penobscot County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Penobscot County growing, and who is moving in?
Penobscot County has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Portland, OR.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Penobscot County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Penobscot County, month by month
Penobscot County sees roughly 72 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 Penobscot County
The nearest airport, Bangor International, is about 10 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 210 miles away.
The best schools in and around Penobscot County
Schools across Penobscot County average an A+, better than 99% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- George B Weatherbee SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Fourteenth Street SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Mill Pond SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Top middle schools
- Reeds Brook Middle SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- William S. Cohen SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Orono Middle SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Top high schools
- Hampden AcademyA+ · 98% proficient
- Bangor High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Hodgdon Middle/high SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Penobscot County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Penobscot County 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 Penobscot County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Penobscot County suits
Common questions about living in Penobscot County
Is Penobscot County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Penobscot County ranks 421st of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and low crime, and lowest on state infrastructure 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 Penobscot County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $226,743. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $71,453 median income, cost of living beats 35% of counties.
Is Penobscot County safe?
Yes, Penobscot County is safer than 99% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $192 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Penobscot County?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 12. That works out to about 72 pleasant days a year, more than 23% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Penobscot County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Hampden, Carmel & Newport, Bangor & Brewer, and Dexter & Glenburn Center. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Penobscot County good for families?
Schools beat 100% of counties, crime safety beats 99%, and childcare runs $1,041 a month.
Is Penobscot County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 35% of counties, though advertised internet speeds beat only 56% of counties. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Penobscot County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Penobscot County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Penobscot County 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.
Penobscot County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Penobscot County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Penobscot County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Penobscot County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Penobscot County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Penobscot County 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.