Best PlacesGrand Rapids, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Grand Rapids 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.
Grand Rapids ranks 115th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on car insurance costs and a weak job market. It does better on heat safety, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Grand Rapids 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 Grand Rapids
The towns and districts of the Grand Rapids 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.
Holland, Zeeland & Hudsonville
Crime runs lower, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Rockford, Northview & Cedar Springs
Tree cover is thicker, though biking is worse.
Wyoming, Allendale & Jenison
Scores close to Rockford, Northview & Cedar Springs, except that transit reaches more jobs here.
Grand Haven, Spring Lake & Sparta
Fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Grand Rapids
More adults hold degrees, though it is noisier.
Kentwood, Caledonia & Cutlerville
Scores close to Downtown Grand Rapids, except that streets are more car-dependent here.
Hastings, Portland & Delton
More homes sit empty and commutes are longer.
Ionia & Lowell
Homes cost less, though health outcomes score lower.
Greenville, Belding & Carson City
Advertised internet is slower and big-city amenities are further off.
Grand Rapids shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Grand Rapids' strengths and weaknesses
Grand Rapids lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Heat safety, civic engagement, and few empty homes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Car insurance costs, a weak job market, and state finances hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Grand Rapids to another than it does between Grand Rapids and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Grand Rapids ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 85% of metro areas
Where Grand Rapids ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 23% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 70 pleasant days a year, better than only 23% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 23% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Grand Rapids
A household needs to earn about $80,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Grand Rapids home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $89,812, 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 Grand Rapids' effective rate of 1.03%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Grand Rapids.
Who works in Grand Rapids, and how
Work in Grand Rapids centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 76% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Grand Rapids and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Grand Rapids growing, and who is moving in?
Grand Rapids has grown about 8% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Detroit, MI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Grand Rapids go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Grand Rapids, month by month
Grand Rapids sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 26° | 19° |
| April | 60° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Grand Rapids
The nearest airport, Gerald R Ford International, is about 8 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 114 miles away.
The best schools in and around Grand Rapids
Schools across Grand Rapids average a C+, better than 37% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Brown Elementary SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
- Countryside Elementary SchoolA+ · 86% proficient
- Holmes Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
Top middle schools
- Blandford SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Spring Lake Intermediate SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
- East Grand Rapids Middle SchoolA · 64% proficient
Top high schools
- City MiddlehighA− · 62% proficient
- Central High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Jenison International AcademyB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Grand Rapids school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Grand Rapids 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 Rapids against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Grand Rapids suits
Families
Schools land around the 37th percentile and crime safety beats 85%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 76% of metro areas and 12% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Grand Rapids
Is Grand Rapids a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Grand Rapids ranks 115th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on heat safety, civic engagement, and few empty homes, and lowest on car insurance costs and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Grand Rapids expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $295,717. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $89,812 median income, cost of living beats 76% of metro areas.
Is Grand Rapids safe?
Yes, Grand Rapids is safer than 85% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $281 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Grand Rapids?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 19. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 23% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Grand Rapids?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Holland, Zeeland & Hudsonville, Rockford, Northview & Cedar Springs, and Wyoming, Allendale & Jenison. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Grand Rapids good for families?
Schools beat 37% of metro areas, crime safety beats 85%, and childcare runs $744 a month.
Is Grand Rapids good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 76% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 57% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Grand Rapids with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Grand Rapids. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Grand Rapids 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 Rapids detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Grand Rapids: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Grand Rapids: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Grand Rapids: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Grand Rapids: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Grand Rapids 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.