Best PlacesBay Shore, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bay Shore, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bay Shore ranks 9,811th 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 Bay Shore
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.
Bay Shore's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bay Shore ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 95% of towns
- BikingBetter than 93% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 91% of towns
Where Bay Shore ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 21% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bay Shore
A household needs to earn about $100,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bay Shore home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $81,390, 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 Bay Shore's effective rate of 0.96%, 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 Bay Shore
Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore.
Who works in Bay Shore, and how
Work in Bay Shore centers on health care & social and hospitality & food. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Bay Shore
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bay Shore.
What the weather is like in Bay Shore, month by month
Bay Shore sees roughly 110 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 25° | 20° |
| April | 51° | 41° | 32° |
| July | 80° | 69° | 60° |
| October | 60° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Bay Shore
The nearest airport, Pellston Regional/Emmet County, is about 20 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 217 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bay Shore
Schools across Bay Shore average a B, better than 71% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lincoln SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Charlevoix Elementary SchoolB− · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Harbor Springs Middle SchoolA− · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Charlevoix Middle High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
- Harbor Springs High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bay Shore school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bay Shore 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 Bay Shore against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bay Shore
Is Bay Shore a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bay Shore ranks 9,811th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, health care access, and civic engagement, and lowest on car insurance costs and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bay Shore expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $375,147. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $81,390 median income, cost of living beats 70% of towns.
Is Bay Shore safe?
Yes, Bay Shore is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $242 per resident a year.
Compare Bay Shore with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bay Shore. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bay Shore 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.
Bay Shore detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bay Shore: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bay Shore: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bay Shore: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bay Shore: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bay Shore 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.