Best PlacesHoughton Lake, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Houghton Lake, 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 ranks 39,504th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Houghton Lake
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's strengths and weaknesses
Where Houghton Lake ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 89% of towns
- TransitBetter than 89% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 82% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 78% of towns
Where Houghton Lake ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Houghton Lake
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Houghton Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $55,807, 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's effective rate of 0.94%, 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
Houghton Lake 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.
Who works in Houghton Lake, and how
Work in Houghton Lake centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Houghton Lake
Houghton Lake has more restaurants and bars per resident than 88% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Houghton Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Houghton Lake, month by month
Houghton Lake 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
The nearest airport, Cherry Capital, is about 51 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 161 miles away.
The best schools in and around Houghton Lake
Schools across Houghton Lake average a D, better than 9% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Roscommon Elementary SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
- Collins Elementary SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top middle schools
- Roscommon Middle SchoolD+ · 26% proficient
Top high schools
- Roscommon High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- 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 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Houghton Lake 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 against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Houghton Lake
Is Houghton Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Houghton Lake ranks 39,504th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, low disaster risk, and transit, and lowest on car insurance costs and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Houghton Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $164,856. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $55,807 median income, cost of living beats 24% of towns.
Is Houghton Lake safe?
Houghton Lake is safer than 40% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $412 per resident a year.
Compare Houghton Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Houghton Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Houghton Lake 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 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Houghton Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Houghton Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Houghton Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Houghton Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Houghton Lake 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.