Best PlacesTopsham, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Topsham, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Topsham ranks 1,748th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on good schools by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Topsham
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.
Topsham's strengths and weaknesses
Where Topsham ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
Where Topsham ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 26% of towns
- Cheap childcare$964 a month, better than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Topsham
A household needs to earn about $100,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Topsham home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $103,285, 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 Topsham's effective rate of 1.09%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Topsham
Topsham 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 Topsham.
Who works in Topsham, and how
Work in Topsham centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Topsham
Topsham has more restaurants and bars per resident than 73% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. The coast is about 20 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Topsham and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Topsham, month by month
Topsham sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 26° | 15° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 32° |
| July | 82° | 70° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Topsham
The nearest airport, Portland International Jetport, is about 27 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 121 miles away.
The best schools in and around Topsham
Schools across Topsham average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bowdoin Central SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Williams-cone SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Bowdoinham Community SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top middle schools
- Brunswick Jr High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Philip W Sugg Middle SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
- Mt Ararat Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top high schools
- Lisbon High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Brunswick High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Mt Ararat High SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Topsham school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Topsham 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 Topsham against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Topsham
Is Topsham a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Topsham ranks 1,748th of 50,333 towns. 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 Topsham expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $369,834. The overall cost of living runs about 0% above the national average. Set against a $103,285 median income, cost of living beats 82% of towns.
Is Topsham safe?
Yes, Topsham is safer than 97% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $147 per resident a year.
Compare Topsham with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Topsham. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Topsham 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.
Topsham detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Topsham: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Topsham: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Topsham: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Topsham: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Topsham 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.