Best PlacesGrand Marais, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Grand Marais, 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.
Grand Marais ranks 24,003rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Grand Marais
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.
Grand Marais' strengths and weaknesses
Where Grand Marais ranks high
- Short commute14.0 minutes each way, better than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
Where Grand Marais ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Grand Marais
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Grand Marais home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $71,057, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Grand Marais' effective rate of 0.61%, 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 Grand Marais
Grand Marais runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Grand Marais.
Who works in Grand Marais, and how
Work in Grand Marais centers on retail trade and hospitality & food. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 58%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 16%
Life in Grand Marais
Grand Marais has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Grand Marais and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Grand Marais, month by month
Grand Marais sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 71 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs July through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 18° | 11° |
| April | 44° | 36° | 30° |
| July | 71° | 60° | 53° |
| October | 53° | 46° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Grand Marais
The nearest airport, Gogebic/Iron County, is about 89 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 243 miles away.
The best schools in and around Grand Marais
Schools across Grand Marais average a C+, better than 43% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- William Kelley ElementaryB · 47% proficient
- Sawtooth Mountain ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
- Great ExpectationsB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Cook County MiddleD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Cook County Senior HighB− · 40% proficient
- Wm. M. Kelley SecondaryB− · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Grand Marais school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Grand Marais 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 Grand Marais against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Grand Marais
Is Grand Marais a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Grand Marais ranks 24,003rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, health care access, and walkability, and lowest on distance from a big city and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Grand Marais expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $339,107. The overall cost of living runs about 14% above the national average. Set against a $71,057 median income, cost of living beats 20% of towns.
Is Grand Marais safe?
Grand Marais is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $492 per resident a year.
Compare Grand Marais with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Grand Marais. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Grand Marais 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.
Grand Marais detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Grand Marais: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Grand Marais: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Grand Marais: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Grand Marais: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Grand Marais 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.