Best PlacesHoughton Lake Heights, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Houghton Lake Heights, 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.
Houghton Lake Heights ranks 47,503rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Car insurance costs pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in Houghton Lake Heights
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.
Houghton Lake Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Houghton Lake Heights ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 78% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 76% of towns
- Cheap childcare$631 a month, better than 76% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 64% of towns
Where Houghton Lake Heights ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Houghton Lake Heights
A household needs to earn about $37,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Houghton Lake Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $56,250, 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 Houghton Lake Heights' effective rate of 0.80%, 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 Houghton Lake Heights
Houghton Lake Heights 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 Houghton Lake Heights.
Who works in Houghton Lake Heights, and how
Work in Houghton Lake Heights centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Houghton Lake Heights
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Houghton Lake Heights.
What the weather is like in Houghton Lake Heights, month by month
Houghton Lake Heights sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 22° | 15° |
| April | 55° | 42° | 31° |
| July | 83° | 70° | 56° |
| October | 60° | 49° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Houghton Lake Heights
The nearest airport, Cherry Capital, is about 47 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 164 miles away.
The best schools in and around Houghton Lake Heights
Schools across Houghton Lake Heights average a D, better than 8% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Collins Elementary SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Houghton Lake Jrsr High SchoolD · 19% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Houghton Lake Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Houghton Lake Heights 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 Houghton Lake Heights against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Houghton Lake Heights
Is Houghton Lake Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Houghton Lake Heights ranks 47,503rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, clean air, and civic engagement, and lowest on car insurance costs and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Houghton Lake Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $142,400. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $56,250 median income, cost of living beats 26% of towns.
Is Houghton Lake Heights safe?
Houghton Lake Heights is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $784 per resident a year.
Compare Houghton Lake Heights with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Houghton Lake Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Houghton Lake Heights 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.
Houghton Lake Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Houghton Lake Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Houghton Lake Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Houghton Lake Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Houghton Lake Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Houghton Lake Heights 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.