Best PlacesPortland, ME Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Portland area, 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.
Photo by Bd2media, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Portland ranks 2nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Only one U.S. metro area scores higher. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $100,212, wages outrun the cost of living, and good schools ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are cell coverage, an overheated housing market, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in the Portland metro
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.
Portland's strengths and weaknesses
Portland ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Good schools, cheap car insurance, and tree cover are the strongest pieces.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, an overheated housing market, and state infrastructure hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Portland ranks high
- School gradeA+, better than 100% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of metro areas
Where Portland ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than only 14% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 70 pleasant days a year, better than only 21% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Portland
A household needs to earn about $125,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Portland home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $100,212, so buying stretches a typical household.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment and a 6.8% 30-year fixed rate. The rate updates weekly from Freddie Mac; property tax uses Portland's effective rate against the median home value.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first ten 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 Portland
Portland 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 Portland.
Who works in Portland, and how
Work in Portland centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Portland
The coast is about 16 minutes away. The map and measures below show how they vary by area.
What the weather is like in Portland, month by month
Portland sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 17. Spring and fall carry most of the comfortable stretch.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 27° | 17° |
| April | 56° | 45° | 34° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 63° | 52° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Portland
The nearest airport, Portland International Jetport, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Edward Lawrence Logan International, about 98 miles away.
The best schools in and around Portland
Schools across Portland average an A+, better than 100% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Falmouth Elementary SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
- Longfellow School-portlandA+ · 88% proficient
- Presumpscot SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
Top middle schools
- Falmouth Middle SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
- Lincoln Middle SchoolA+ · 85% proficient
- Lyman Moore Middle SchoolA+ · 79% proficient
Top high schools
- Falmouth High SchoolA+ · 98% proficient
- Baxter Academy For Tech & SciencesA+ · 95% proficient
- Deering High SchoolA · 78% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Portland school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Portland 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 Portland against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Portland suits
Families
Schools beat 100% of the country and crime runs low. Compare neighborhoods on the map for the best fit.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 75% of metro areas and 20% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Portland
Is Portland a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Portland ranks 2nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on good schools, cheap car insurance, and tree cover, and lowest on cell coverage 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 Portland expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $458,964. The overall cost of living runs about 5% above the national average. Set against a $100,212 median income, cost of living beats 75% of metro areas.
Is Portland safe?
Yes, Portland is safer than 98% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $196 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Portland?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 37 with lows near 17. The area gets its pleasant stretches in spring and fall.
Is Portland good for families?
Schools beat 100% of metro areas, and safety is best away from the urban core. Home prices are usually the catch in the strongest school areas.
Is Portland good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 75% of metro areas, and internet is widely advertised, so a big-employer salary stretches further here.
Compare Portland with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Portland. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Portland 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.
Portland detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Portland: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Portland: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Portland: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Portland: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Portland 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.