Best PlacesWales Corner, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wales Corner, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Wales Corner ranks 9,860th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wales Corner
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.
Wales Corner's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wales Corner ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- School gradeA+, better than 98% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
Where Wales Corner ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 10% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 68 pleasant days a year, better than only 21% of towns
- Cheap childcare$996 a month, better than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wales Corner
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wales Corner home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,493, 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 Wales Corner's effective rate of 1.08%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wales Corner
Wales Corner's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wales Corner.
Who works in Wales Corner, and how
Work in Wales Corner centers on retail trade and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Wales Corner
The coast is about 45 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Wales Corner, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wales Corner, month by month
Wales Corner sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 23° | 12° |
| April | 56° | 43° | 32° |
| July | 83° | 70° | 58° |
| October | 62° | 50° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Wales Corner
The nearest airport, Augusta State, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 134 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wales Corner
Schools across Wales Corner average an A+, better than 98% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Monmouth Memorial SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Greene Central SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Carrie Ricker SchoolA · 67% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tripp Middle SchoolA+ · 89% proficient
- Oak Hill Middle SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
Top high schools
- Leavitt Area High SchoolA+ · 94% proficient
- Oak Hill High SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Monmouth AcademyA+ · 80% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wales Corner school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wales Corner 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 Wales Corner against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wales Corner
Is Wales Corner a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wales Corner ranks 9,860th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, good schools, and low crime, 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 Wales Corner expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $260,786. The overall cost of living runs about 0% below the national average. Set against a $80,493 median income, cost of living beats 43% of towns.
Is Wales Corner safe?
Yes, Wales Corner is safer than 95% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $156 per resident a year.
Compare Wales Corner with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wales Corner. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wales Corner 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.
Wales Corner detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wales Corner: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wales Corner: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wales Corner: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wales Corner: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wales Corner 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.