Best PlacesEastside Lansing, Lansing, MI Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Eastside Lansing, Lansing, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Eastside Lansing, Lansing ranks 4,292nd of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.

#4,292
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 5,983 neighborhoods
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Eastside Lansing, Lansing

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Eastside Lansing, Lansing area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Eastside Lansing, Lansing's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Affordable childcare
Top 10%Short commutes
Top 10%Biking
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Eastside Lansing, Lansing with other neighborhoods.

Where Eastside Lansing, Lansing ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$743 a month, better than 93% of neighborhoods
  • Short commute17.2 minutes each way, better than 92% of neighborhoods
  • BikingBetter than 90% of neighborhoods
  • Internet speedBetter than 77% of neighborhoods
  • Heat safetyBetter than 76% of neighborhoods

Where Eastside Lansing, Lansing ranks low

  • Low property taxBetter than only 5% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 8% of neighborhoods
  • Local economyBetter than only 12% of neighborhoods
  • QuietBetter than only 20% of neighborhoods
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 20% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Eastside Lansing, Lansing

A household needs to earn about $41,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Eastside Lansing, Lansing home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $57,203, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$41,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$966
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $137,606 home
Median rent
$1,183
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$702
Property tax$219
Homeowners insurance$46

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 Eastside Lansing, Lansing's effective rate of 1.91%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Eastside Lansing, Lansing

Eastside Lansing, Lansing runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
32
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
13%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.2
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1818%
18 to 3437%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6413%
65 and older13%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Eastside Lansing, Lansing.


Who works in Eastside Lansing, Lansing, and how

Work in Eastside Lansing, Lansing centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
16%
about the national average
Unemployment
4.9%
about the national average
Job growth
−5.0%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Education16%
Health care & social15%
Hospitality & food10%
Manufacturing10%
Retail trade8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 72%
  • Work from home 16%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 12%

Life in Eastside Lansing, Lansing

Eastside Lansing, Lansing has more restaurants and bars per resident than 81% of neighborhoods and more parkland per resident than 84% of neighborhoods. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Eastside Lansing, Lansing and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
151
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 105.2 per 10,000 residents, more than 81% of neighborhoods
Coffee shops
10
about 7.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 73% of neighborhoods
Parkland
126 acres
about 8.8 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 84% of neighborhoods
Open past 10pm
~51
food and drink venues open late, about 35.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 78% of neighborhoods

What the weather is like in Eastside Lansing, Lansing, month by month

Eastside Lansing, Lansing sees roughly 68 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January34°26°19°
April61°47°35°
July86°74°61°
October65°53°42°

Flying in and out of Eastside Lansing, Lansing

The nearest airport, Capital Region International, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 70 miles away.

Nearest airport
LAN
Capital Region International, about 4 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
222nd-busiest in the US, 10 nonstop destinations
Average drive
8 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Eastside Lansing, Lansing

Schools across Eastside Lansing, Lansing average a D+, better than 28% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Eastside Lansing, Lansing school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Eastside Lansing, Lansing 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 Eastside Lansing, Lansing against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Eastside Lansing, Lansing

Is Eastside Lansing, Lansing a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Eastside Lansing, Lansing ranks 4,292nd of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on affordable childcare, short commutes, and biking, and lowest on property taxes 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 Eastside Lansing, Lansing expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $137,606. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $57,203 median income, cost of living beats 39% of neighborhoods.

Is Eastside Lansing, Lansing safe?

Eastside Lansing, Lansing is safer than 26% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $701 per resident a year.


Compare Eastside Lansing, Lansing with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Eastside Lansing, Lansing. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Eastside Lansing, Lansing 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.

Eastside Lansing, Lansing detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Eastside Lansing, Lansing: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Eastside Lansing, Lansing: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Eastside Lansing, Lansing: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Eastside Lansing, Lansing: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Eastside Lansing, Lansing detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.