Best PlacesGwinn, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gwinn, 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.
Gwinn ranks 35,591st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Gwinn
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.
Gwinn's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gwinn ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 89% of towns
- TransitBetter than 88% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 85% of towns
Where Gwinn ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 19% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gwinn
A household needs to earn about $35,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gwinn home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,151, 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 Gwinn's effective rate of 0.97%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Gwinn
Gwinn runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Gwinn.
Who works in Gwinn, and how
Work in Gwinn centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Gwinn
Gwinn has more parkland per resident than 93% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Gwinn and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Gwinn, month by month
Gwinn sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 77 degrees. January highs sit near 24, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 24° | 18° | 12° |
| April | 46° | 37° | 28° |
| July | 77° | 66° | 56° |
| October | 54° | 45° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Gwinn
The nearest airport, Marquette/Sawyer Regional, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 234 miles away.
The best schools in and around Gwinn
Schools across Gwinn average a C−, better than 19% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lakeview SchoolA− · 57% proficient
- Wells Township SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Aspen Ridge Elementary SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bothwell Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Negaunee Middle SchoolB− · 39% proficient
- Ishpeming Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Marquette Senior High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Negaunee High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Westwood High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gwinn school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gwinn 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 Gwinn against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gwinn
Is Gwinn a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gwinn ranks 35,591st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low disaster risk, and civic engagement, and lowest on car insurance costs and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Gwinn expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $131,546. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $60,151 median income, cost of living beats 30% of towns.
Is Gwinn safe?
Gwinn is safer than 16% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $537 per resident a year.
Compare Gwinn with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gwinn. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gwinn 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.
Gwinn detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gwinn: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gwinn: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gwinn: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gwinn: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gwinn 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.