Best PlacesFranklin, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Franklin, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Franklin ranks 1,333rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Franklin
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.
Franklin's strengths and weaknesses
Where Franklin ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$188,455 median, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of towns
Where Franklin ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 17% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 21% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Franklin
A household needs to earn about $196,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Franklin home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $188,455; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Franklin's effective rate of 1.27%, 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 Franklin
Franklin runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Franklin.
Who works in Franklin, and how
Work in Franklin centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Franklin
Franklin has more restaurants and bars per resident than 88% of towns and more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Franklin and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Franklin, month by month
Franklin sees roughly 96 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 23° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Franklin
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 21 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 Franklin
Schools across Franklin average a B, better than 66% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Amerman Elementary SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Beverly Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- West Maple Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Meads Mill Middle SchoolA · 61% proficient
- Hillside Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Berkshire Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Wylie E Groves High SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Northville High SchoolA− · 66% proficient
- Ernest W Seaholm High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Franklin school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Franklin 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 Franklin against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Franklin
Is Franklin a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Franklin ranks 1,333rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and an educated workforce, 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 Franklin expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $703,547. The overall cost of living runs about 13% above the national average. Set against a $188,455 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Franklin safe?
Franklin is safer than 35% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $375 per resident a year.
Compare Franklin with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Franklin. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Franklin 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.
Franklin detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Franklin: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Franklin: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Franklin: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Franklin: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Franklin 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.