Best PlacesWinthrop, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Winthrop, 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.
Winthrop ranks 6,443rd 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 Winthrop
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.
Winthrop's strengths and weaknesses
Where Winthrop ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 93% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 89% of towns
Where Winthrop ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Short commute33.9 minutes each way, better than only 17% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Winthrop
A household needs to earn about $80,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Winthrop home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $85,912, 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 Winthrop's effective rate of 1.21%, 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 Winthrop
Winthrop 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 Winthrop.
Who works in Winthrop, and how
Work in Winthrop centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Winthrop
Winthrop has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Winthrop and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Winthrop, month by month
Winthrop sees roughly 73 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 24° | 15° |
| April | 57° | 44° | 34° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 63° | 51° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Winthrop
The nearest airport, Augusta State, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 144 miles away.
The best schools in and around Winthrop
Schools across Winthrop average an A+, better than 99% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Winthrop Grade SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Wayne Elementary SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Monmouth Memorial SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
Top middle schools
- Winthrop Middle SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
- Maranacook Community Middle SchA+ · 89% proficient
- Gardiner Regional Middle SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
Top high schools
- Maranacook Community High SchA+ · 98% proficient
- Winthrop High SchoolA+ · 95% proficient
- Gardiner Area High SchoolA+ · 90% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Winthrop school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Winthrop 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 Winthrop against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Winthrop
Is Winthrop a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Winthrop ranks 6,443rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and clean air, 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 Winthrop expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $290,455. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $85,912 median income, cost of living beats 62% of towns.
Is Winthrop safe?
Yes, Winthrop is safer than 83% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $224 per resident a year.
Compare Winthrop with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Winthrop. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Winthrop 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.
Winthrop detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Winthrop: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Winthrop: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Winthrop: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Winthrop: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Winthrop 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.