The Best Places to Live in Maine Right Now

Community. Natural beauty. Opportunity. Momentum. These 12 Maine towns — from coastal villages to mountain hamlets to the state capital — just might have what you’re looking for in your next home base. (Anyway, it’s fun to daydream.)

Augusta

A new crop of downtown entrepreneurs has a message: Don’t Dis ’Gusta.

Rangeley

Who really needs a ski mountain, anyway?

Hope

All the perks of the Camden Hills, with way more affordable homes than in neighboring Camden.

Ellsworth

A town with momentum at Acadia’s front door.

Brunswick

A vibrant college town with back-door access to the coast.

Westbrook

Is Westbrook Stealing Portland’s thunder?

Hampden

A Bangor bedroom community with an A+ school system.

Brooksville

The good life in McCloskey country.

Biddeford

A historic mill town in the midst of a revival.

Eastport

Quirky and coastal — and a bargain.

South Berwick

A southern Maine gem at the intersection of nature and history.

North Haven

North Haven in winter has a quiet beauty.

Population, income, age, and poverty data come from the most recent U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey. Walk Score (walkscore.com) awards scores based on an assessment of a community’s walkability. GreatSchools (greatschools.org) rates Maine institutions based on publicly reported standardized test scores; Down East has calculated an average of ranked elementary, middle, and high schools, public and private. All of these stats provide only a generalized snapshot of a community and a starting point for further research, and factors like walkability can vary substantially from one area of town to the next.

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