Best PlacesSteuben, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Steuben, 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.
Steuben ranks 16,609th 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 Steuben
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.
Steuben's strengths and weaknesses
Where Steuben ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- QuietBetter than 93% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 90% of towns
Where Steuben ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 8% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Steuben
A household needs to earn about $54,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Steuben home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,728, 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 Steuben's effective rate of 1.00%, 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 Steuben
Steuben 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 Steuben.
Who works in Steuben, and how
Work in Steuben centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Steuben
The coast is about 26 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Steuben, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Steuben, month by month
Steuben sees roughly 77 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 Steuben
The nearest airport, Hancock County/Bar Harbor, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 214 miles away.
The best schools in and around Steuben
Schools across Steuben average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cherryfield ElementaryA+ · 88% proficient
- Peninsula SchA+ · 85% proficient
- Ella Lewis SchA+ · 75% proficient
Top high schools
- Sumner Memorial High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Narraguagus High SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Steuben school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Steuben 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 Steuben against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Steuben
Is Steuben a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Steuben ranks 16,609th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and tree cover, and lowest on an overheated housing market and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Steuben expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $201,056. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $66,728 median income, cost of living beats 28% of towns.
Is Steuben safe?
Yes, Steuben is safer than 90% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $183 per resident a year.
Compare Steuben with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Steuben. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Steuben 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.
Steuben detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Steuben: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Steuben: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Steuben: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Steuben: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Steuben 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.