Best PlacesRicker Mills, VT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ricker Mills, 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.
Ricker Mills ranks 27,983rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Ricker Mills
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.
Ricker Mills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Ricker Mills ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 91% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 89% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 84% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 82% of towns
Where Ricker Mills ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 7% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 10% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Ricker Mills
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ricker Mills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $74,884, 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 Ricker Mills' effective rate of 1.44%, 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 Ricker Mills
Ricker Mills 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 Ricker Mills.
Who works in Ricker Mills, and how
Work in Ricker Mills centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Ricker Mills
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Ricker Mills.
What the weather is like in Ricker Mills, month by month
Ricker Mills sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 21° | 14° |
| April | 54° | 43° | 34° |
| July | 81° | 70° | 61° |
| October | 59° | 49° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Ricker Mills
The nearest airport, Lebanon Municipal, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 144 miles away.
The best schools in and around Ricker Mills
Schools across Ricker Mills average a D, better than 10% of towns.
Top high schools
- Blue Mountain Union SchoolC− · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ricker Mills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ricker Mills 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 Ricker Mills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Ricker Mills
Is Ricker Mills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ricker Mills ranks 27,983rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, clean air, and an educated workforce, and lowest on cell coverage and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Ricker Mills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $237,791. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $74,884 median income, cost of living beats 45% of towns.
Is Ricker Mills safe?
Yes, Ricker Mills is safer than 78% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $227 per resident a year.
Compare Ricker Mills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ricker Mills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ricker Mills 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.
Ricker Mills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ricker Mills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ricker Mills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ricker Mills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ricker Mills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ricker Mills 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.