Best PlacesDetroit, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Detroit metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by laurabrain, Unsplash License, via unsplash
Detroit ranks 260th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on a weak job market and car insurance costs. It does better on walkability, which keeps it off the bottom.
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The best neighborhoods in the Detroit 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 Detroit
The towns and districts of the Detroit 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.
Rochester Hills, Troy & Rochester
More adults hold degrees, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Farmington Hills, Novi & West Bloomfield
Crime runs lower, though homes cost more.
Waterford, Howell & Pontiac
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Macomb, Utica & Sterling Heights
Fewer homes sit empty, though biking is worse.
Canton, Westland & Livonia
Transit reaches fewer jobs.
Royal Oak, Southfield & Oak Park
It is noisier.
Warren, St. Clair Shores & Roseville
Schools score lower and health outcomes score lower.
Downtown Detroit
More households have young kids, though health care is harder to reach.
Grosse Pointe Park & Grosse Pointe
Fewer residents vote and prices have run up more.
Detroit shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Detroit's strengths and weaknesses
Detroit lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Walkability, what local pay buys, and biking are the strongest pieces, though none of them is exceptional.
The one real hole is a weak job market, near the bottom of the country. Car insurance costs and crime also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Detroit ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 68% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 88% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 74% of metro areas
- Household income$88,413 median, better than 73% of metro areas
Where Detroit ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Short commute26.0 minutes each way, better than only 19% of metro areas
- School gradeC, better than only 28% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Detroit
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Detroit home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $88,413, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.7% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-08-20 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 Detroit's effective rate of 1.34%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Detroit
Detroit's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Detroit.
Who works in Detroit, and how
Work in Detroit centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Detroit
Detroit has more parkland per resident than 74% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Detroit and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Detroit growing, and who is moving in?
Detroit has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Ann Arbor, MI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Detroit go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Detroit, month by month
Detroit sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 28° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 38° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Detroit
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 17 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 Detroit
Schools across Detroit average a C, better than 28% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Gallimore Elementary SchoolA+ · 96% proficient
- Crestwood Accelerated ProgramA+ · 95% proficient
- Webster Elementary SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
Top middle schools
- Avondale Gifted And Talented EducationA+ · 95% proficient
- Dearborn Stem Middle SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Boulan Park Middle SchoolA+ · 77% proficient
Top high schools
- International AcademyA+ · 82% proficient
- International Academy Of MacombA · 78% proficient
- Airport Middle CollegeA · 75% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Detroit school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Detroit 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 Detroit against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Detroit suits
Common questions about living in Detroit
Is Detroit a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Detroit ranks 260th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on walkability, what local pay buys, and biking, and lowest on a weak job market and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Detroit expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $270,273. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $88,413 median income, cost of living beats 68% of metro areas.
Is Detroit safe?
Detroit is safer than 13% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $518 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Detroit?
July highs average about 87 degrees, and January highs near 36 with lows near 21. That works out to about 79 pleasant days a year, more than 38% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Detroit?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Rochester Hills, Troy & Rochester, Farmington Hills, Novi & West Bloomfield, and Waterford, Howell & Pontiac. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Detroit good for families?
Schools beat 28% of metro areas, crime safety beats 13%, and childcare runs $864 a month.
Is Detroit good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 68% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 45% of metro areas. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare Detroit with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Detroit. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Detroit 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.
Detroit detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Detroit: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Detroit: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Detroit: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Detroit: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Detroit 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.