Best PlacesHillcrest, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hillcrest, 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.
Hillcrest ranks 37,252nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hillcrest
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.
Hillcrest's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hillcrest ranks high
- Short commute15.0 minutes each way, better than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 88% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 88% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 86% of towns
Where Hillcrest ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 15% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hillcrest
A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hillcrest home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $56,042, 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 Hillcrest's effective rate of 1.09%, 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 Hillcrest
Hillcrest 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 Hillcrest.
Who works in Hillcrest, and how
Work in Hillcrest centers on retail trade 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 97%
- Work from home 1%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Hillcrest
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Hillcrest.
What the weather is like in Hillcrest, month by month
Hillcrest sees roughly 116 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 8. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 16° | 8° |
| April | 50° | 38° | 28° |
| July | 79° | 67° | 54° |
| October | 56° | 46° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Hillcrest
The nearest airport, Gogebic/Iron County, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 185 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hillcrest
Schools across Hillcrest average a D+, better than 15% of towns.
Top high schools
- Luther L Wright K12 SchoolC− · 24% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hillcrest school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hillcrest 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 Hillcrest against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hillcrest
Is Hillcrest a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hillcrest ranks 37,252nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, health care access, and clean air, 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 Hillcrest expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $145,200. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $56,042 median income, cost of living beats 30% of towns.
Is Hillcrest safe?
Hillcrest is safer than 30% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $416 per resident a year.
Compare Hillcrest with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hillcrest. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hillcrest 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.
Hillcrest detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hillcrest: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hillcrest: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hillcrest: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hillcrest: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hillcrest 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.