Best PlacesAlden, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Alden, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Alden ranks 22,485th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Alden
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.
Alden's strengths and weaknesses
Where Alden ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- QuietBetter than 90% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 88% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 85% of towns
Where Alden ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 11% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Alden
A household needs to earn about $82,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Alden home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $77,758; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Alden's effective rate of 0.86%, 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 Alden
Alden 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 Alden.
Who works in Alden, and how
Work in Alden centers on retail trade and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Alden
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Alden.
What the weather is like in Alden, month by month
Alden sees roughly 112 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 24° | 19° |
| April | 53° | 42° | 33° |
| July | 81° | 69° | 58° |
| October | 59° | 50° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Alden
The nearest airport, Cherry Capital, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 189 miles away.
The best schools in and around Alden
Schools across Alden average a C−, better than 27% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Birch Street Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Mancelona Elementary SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- John R Rodger Elementary SchoolD · 17% proficient
Top middle schools
- Cherryland Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Mancelona Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Kalkaska Middle SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Elk Rapids High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Kalkaska High SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Bellaire Middlehigh SchoolC · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Alden school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Alden 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 Alden against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Alden
Is Alden a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Alden ranks 22,485th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, health care access, and quiet, and lowest on car insurance costs and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Alden expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $309,444. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $77,758 median income, cost of living beats 60% of towns.
Is Alden safe?
Yes, Alden is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $246 per resident a year.
Compare Alden with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Alden. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Alden 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.
Alden detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Alden: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Alden: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Alden: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Alden: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Alden 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.