Best PlacesBeaver Island, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Beaver Island, 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.
Beaver Island ranks 31,324th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Beaver Island
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.
Beaver Island's strengths and weaknesses
Where Beaver Island ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute11.2 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 96% of towns
Where Beaver Island ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 1% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 5% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Beaver Island
A household needs to earn about $99,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Beaver Island home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $76,263, 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 Beaver Island's effective rate of 1.16%, 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 Beaver Island
Beaver Island 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 Beaver Island.
Who works in Beaver Island, and how
Work in Beaver Island centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Beaver Island
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Beaver Island.
What the weather is like in Beaver Island, month by month
Beaver Island sees roughly 98 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 78 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 24° | 19° |
| April | 48° | 39° | 31° |
| July | 78° | 67° | 57° |
| October | 58° | 50° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Beaver Island
The nearest airport, Pellston Regional/Emmet County, is about 37 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 223 miles away.
The best schools in and around Beaver Island
Schools across Beaver Island average a B+, better than 75% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Charlevoix Elementary SchoolB− · 44% proficient
- Suttons Bay Elementary Middle SchoolD · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- Charlevoix Middle High SchoolB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Beaver Island school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Beaver Island 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 Beaver Island against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Beaver Island
Is Beaver Island a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Beaver Island ranks 31,324th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, low disaster risk, and short commutes, and lowest on internet speeds and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Beaver Island expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $362,492. The overall cost of living runs about 0% below the national average. Set against a $76,263 median income, cost of living beats 47% of towns.
Is Beaver Island safe?
Beaver Island is safer than 1% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,124 per resident a year.
Compare Beaver Island with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Beaver Island. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Beaver Island 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.
Beaver Island detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Beaver Island: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Beaver Island: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Beaver Island: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Beaver Island: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Beaver Island 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.