Best PlacesSouth Blue Hill, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around South Blue Hill, 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.
South Blue Hill ranks 5,907th 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 South Blue Hill
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.
South Blue Hill's strengths and weaknesses
Where South Blue Hill ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 92% of towns
Where South Blue Hill ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 9% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 17% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in South Blue Hill
A household needs to earn about $128,000 a year to comfortably buy the median South Blue Hill home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $73,583, 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 South Blue Hill's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 South Blue Hill
South Blue Hill 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 South Blue Hill.
Who works in South Blue Hill, and how
Work in South Blue Hill centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 62%
- Work from home 33%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in South Blue Hill
The coast is about 11 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across South Blue Hill, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in South Blue Hill, month by month
South Blue Hill sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 25° | 16° |
| April | 53° | 42° | 32° |
| July | 79° | 67° | 58° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of South Blue Hill
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 185 miles away.
The best schools in and around South Blue Hill
Schools across South Blue Hill average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Blue Hill Consolidated SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
Top high schools
- Mt Desert Island High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Deer Isle-stonington High SchA+ · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every South Blue Hill school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
South Blue Hill 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 South Blue Hill against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in South Blue Hill
Is South Blue Hill a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, South Blue Hill ranks 5,907th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and quiet, 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 South Blue Hill expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $492,600. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $73,583 median income, cost of living beats 52% of towns.
Is South Blue Hill safe?
Yes, South Blue Hill is safer than 74% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $226 per resident a year.
Compare South Blue Hill with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to South Blue Hill. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in South Blue Hill 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.
South Blue Hill detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for South Blue Hill: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in South Blue Hill: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of South Blue Hill: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in South Blue Hill: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
South Blue Hill 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.