Best PlacesGrosse Pointe Woods, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Grosse Pointe Woods, 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.
Grosse Pointe Woods ranks 2,006th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Grosse Pointe Woods
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.
Grosse Pointe Woods' strengths and weaknesses
Where Grosse Pointe Woods ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 98% of towns
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 97% of towns
Where Grosse Pointe Woods ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 18% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Grosse Pointe Woods
A household needs to earn about $102,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Grosse Pointe Woods home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $140,865, 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 Grosse Pointe Woods' effective rate of 1.73%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Grosse Pointe Woods
Grosse Pointe Woods runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Grosse Pointe Woods.
Who works in Grosse Pointe Woods, and how
Work in Grosse Pointe Woods centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 26%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Grosse Pointe Woods
Grosse Pointe Woods has more restaurants and bars per resident than 67% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Grosse Pointe Woods and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Grosse Pointe Woods, month by month
Grosse Pointe Woods sees roughly 79 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 87 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 28° | 21° |
| April | 61° | 49° | 38° |
| July | 87° | 76° | 65° |
| October | 66° | 56° | 46° |
Flying in and out of Grosse Pointe Woods
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 28 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 Grosse Pointe Woods
Schools across Grosse Pointe Woods average a B, better than 70% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ferry Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- John Monteith Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Stevens T Mason Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Parcells Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- South Lake Middle SchoolF · 12% proficient
Top high schools
- Grosse Pointe North High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- South Lake High SchoolD− · 11% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Grosse Pointe Woods school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Grosse Pointe Woods 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 Grosse Pointe Woods against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Grosse Pointe Woods
Is Grosse Pointe Woods a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Grosse Pointe Woods ranks 2,006th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, an educated workforce, and transit, and lowest on car insurance costs and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Grosse Pointe Woods expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $346,811. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $140,865 median income, cost of living beats 97% of towns.
Is Grosse Pointe Woods safe?
Grosse Pointe Woods is safer than 30% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $410 per resident a year.
Compare Grosse Pointe Woods with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Grosse Pointe Woods. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Grosse Pointe Woods 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.
Grosse Pointe Woods detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Grosse Pointe Woods: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Grosse Pointe Woods: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Grosse Pointe Woods: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Grosse Pointe Woods: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Grosse Pointe Woods 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.