Best PlacesAnn Arbor, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Ann Arbor metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by AndrewHorne, CC BY 3.0, via commons
Ann Arbor ranks 63rd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $101,862, everyday costs sit below the national average, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are car insurance costs, a weak job market, and property taxes.
The best neighborhoods in the Ann Arbor 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.
The best areas in Ann Arbor
The towns and districts of the Ann Arbor metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Saline
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and crime runs lower.
Dexter & Chelsea
Biking is worse and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Northville
It is quieter, though streets are more car-dependent.
Manchester
Health care is easier to reach and more residents vote.
Whitmore Lake
More adults hold degrees and schools score higher.
Downtown Ann Arbor
Fewer households have young kids and prices have run up more.
Milan & Willis
Homes cost less, though tree cover is thinner.
Ypsilanti
Ann Arbor shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 5% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Ann Arbor's strengths and weaknesses
Ann Arbor ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. An educated workforce is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Population health and transit follow.
The one real hole is car insurance costs, near the bottom of the country. A weak job market and property taxes also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Ann Arbor ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 96% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of metro areas
Where Ann Arbor ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 23% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,094 a month, better than only 27% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Ann Arbor
A household needs to earn about $115,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ann Arbor home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $101,862, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Ann Arbor's effective rate of 1.49%, 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 Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor runs younger 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 Ann Arbor.
Who works in Ann Arbor, and how
Work in Ann Arbor centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 64%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 14%
Life in Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 88% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Ann Arbor and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Ann Arbor growing, and who is moving in?
Ann Arbor has grown about 4% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Detroit, MI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Ann Arbor go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Ann Arbor, month by month
Ann Arbor sees roughly 87 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 26° | 17° |
| April | 61° | 47° | 34° |
| July | 85° | 72° | 57° |
| October | 65° | 52° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Ann Arbor
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 20 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 168 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Ann Arbor
Schools across Ann Arbor average a B, better than 79% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Ann Arbor Steam At Northside SchoolA+ · 88% proficient
- Wines Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Eberwhite SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
Top middle schools
- Clague Middle SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
- Tappan Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
- Slauson Middle SchoolA · 63% proficient
Top high schools
- Community High SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Washtenaw Technical Middle CollegeA · 75% proficient
- Skyline High SchoolA · 68% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ann Arbor school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ann Arbor 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 Ann Arbor against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Ann Arbor suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of metro areas and 22% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Ann Arbor
Is Ann Arbor a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ann Arbor ranks 63rd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on an educated workforce, population health, 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 Ann Arbor expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $403,073. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $101,862 median income, cost of living beats 88% of metro areas.
Is Ann Arbor safe?
Ann Arbor is safer than 40% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $405 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Ann Arbor?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 17. That works out to about 87 pleasant days a year, more than 50% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Ann Arbor?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Saline, Dexter & Chelsea, and Northville. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Ann Arbor good for families?
Schools beat 79% of metro areas, crime safety beats 40%, and childcare runs $1,094 a month.
Is Ann Arbor good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 49% of metro areas. About 22% of workers already work from home.
Compare Ann Arbor with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ann Arbor. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ann Arbor 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.
Ann Arbor detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ann Arbor: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ann Arbor: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ann Arbor: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ann Arbor: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ann Arbor 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.