Best PlacesGardenville, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gardenville, 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.
Gardenville ranks 17,409th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Gardenville
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.
Gardenville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gardenville ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of towns
- Short commute20.4 minutes each way, better than 86% of towns
Where Gardenville ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 5% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gardenville
A household needs to earn about $62,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gardenville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,913, 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 Gardenville's effective rate of 0.81%, 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 Gardenville
Gardenville runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Gardenville.
Who works in Gardenville, and how
Work in Gardenville centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Gardenville
Gardenville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 98% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Gardenville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Gardenville, month by month
Gardenville sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 20° | 12° |
| April | 50° | 39° | 30° |
| July | 80° | 67° | 56° |
| October | 58° | 48° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Gardenville
The nearest airport, Chippewa County International, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 296 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gardenville
Schools across Gardenville average a C+, better than 40% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lincoln SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Sault Area High SchoolC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gardenville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gardenville 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 Gardenville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gardenville
Is Gardenville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gardenville ranks 17,409th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low disaster risk, and civic engagement, and lowest on distance from a big city 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 Gardenville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $236,421. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $78,913 median income, cost of living beats 70% of towns.
Is Gardenville safe?
Gardenville is safer than 53% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $312 per resident a year.
Compare Gardenville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gardenville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gardenville 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.
Gardenville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gardenville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gardenville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gardenville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gardenville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gardenville 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.