Best PlacesShin Pond, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Shin Pond, 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.
Shin Pond ranks 23,604th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Shin Pond
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.
Shin Pond's strengths and weaknesses
Where Shin Pond ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 95% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 88% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 87% of towns
Where Shin Pond ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 5% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 6% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Shin Pond
A household needs to earn about $52,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Shin Pond home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,699, 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 Shin Pond's effective rate of 0.70%, 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 Shin Pond
Shin Pond 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 Shin Pond.
Who works in Shin Pond, and how
Work in Shin Pond centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Shin Pond
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Shin Pond.
What the weather is like in Shin Pond, month by month
Shin Pond sees roughly 64 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 19° | 10° |
| April | 54° | 41° | 30° |
| July | 83° | 70° | 58° |
| October | 61° | 49° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Shin Pond
The nearest airport, Presque Isle International, is about 52 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 281 miles away.
The best schools in and around Shin Pond
Schools across Shin Pond average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Mill Pond SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Mapleton Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Fort Kent Elementary SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
Top middle schools
- Valley Rivers Middle SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Medway Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Fort Kent Community High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Hodgdon Middle/high SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Washburn District High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Shin Pond school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Shin Pond 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 Shin Pond against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Shin Pond
Is Shin Pond a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Shin Pond ranks 23,604th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and clean air, and lowest on internet speeds and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Shin Pond expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $202,839. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $60,699 median income, cost of living beats 27% of towns.
Is Shin Pond safe?
Yes, Shin Pond is safer than 85% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $206 per resident a year.
Compare Shin Pond with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Shin Pond. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Shin Pond 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.
Shin Pond detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Shin Pond: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Shin Pond: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Shin Pond: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Shin Pond: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Shin Pond 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.