Best PlacesCarleton, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Carleton, 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.
Carleton ranks 17,322nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Carleton
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.
Carleton's strengths and weaknesses
Where Carleton ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 93% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 84% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 82% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 82% of towns
Where Carleton ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 11% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 15% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 18% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Carleton
A household needs to earn about $73,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Carleton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $81,333, 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 Carleton's effective rate of 0.83%, 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 Carleton
Carleton runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Carleton.
Who works in Carleton, and how
Work in Carleton centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Carleton
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Carleton.
What the weather is like in Carleton, month by month
Carleton sees roughly 71 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 28° | 20° |
| April | 61° | 48° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Carleton
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 11 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 Carleton
Schools across Carleton average a B+, better than 79% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Loren Eyler Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Joseph C Sterling Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Raisinville SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Monroe Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Wagar 56 Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
- Carl T Renton Jr High SchoolC · 34% proficient
Top high schools
- Airport Middle CollegeA · 75% proficient
- Milan High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Monroe High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Carleton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Carleton 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 Carleton against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Carleton
Is Carleton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Carleton ranks 17,322nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, few empty homes, and big-city access, and lowest on car insurance costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Carleton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $279,119. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $81,333 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Carleton safe?
Yes, Carleton is safer than 82% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $235 per resident a year.
Compare Carleton with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Carleton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Carleton 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.
Carleton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Carleton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Carleton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Carleton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Carleton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Carleton 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.