Best PlacesAlpine, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Alpine, 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.
Alpine ranks 21,055th 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 Alpine
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.
Alpine's strengths and weaknesses
Where Alpine ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 92% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of towns
- TransitBetter than 90% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 86% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 83% of towns
Where Alpine ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 8% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 68 pleasant days a year, better than only 21% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Alpine
A household needs to earn about $81,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Alpine home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $91,294, 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 Alpine's effective rate of 1.06%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Alpine
Alpine runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Alpine.
Who works in Alpine, and how
Work in Alpine centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Alpine
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Alpine.
What the weather is like in Alpine, month by month
Alpine sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 60° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Alpine
The nearest airport, Gerald R Ford International, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 110 miles away.
The best schools in and around Alpine
Schools across Alpine average a C−, better than 27% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Pine Island ElementaryC · 33% proficient
- Alpine Elementary SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mill Creek Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Kenowa Hills Middle SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Comstock Park High SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Kenowa Hills High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Alpine school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Alpine 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 Alpine against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Alpine
Is Alpine a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Alpine ranks 21,055th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, civic engagement, and transit, 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 Alpine expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $300,441. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $91,294 median income, cost of living beats 79% of towns.
Is Alpine safe?
Alpine is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $393 per resident a year.
Compare Alpine with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Alpine. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Alpine 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.
Alpine detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Alpine: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Alpine: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Alpine: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Alpine: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Alpine 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.