Best PlacesHoughton Point, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Houghton Point, 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 Point ranks 37,005th 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 Houghton Point
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 Point's strengths and weaknesses
Where Houghton Point ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 93% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 86% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 78% of towns
- Cheap childcare$631 a month, better than 76% of towns
Where Houghton Point ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 9% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Houghton Point
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Houghton Point home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $64,505; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Point's effective rate of 0.99%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Houghton Point
Houghton Point 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 Point.
Who works in Houghton Point, and how
Work in Houghton Point centers on retail trade and public administration. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Houghton Point
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Houghton Point.
What the weather is like in Houghton Point, month by month
Houghton Point 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 Point
The nearest airport, Cherry Capital, is about 48 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 165 miles away.
The best schools in and around Houghton Point
Schools across Houghton Point average a D, better than 9% 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 Point school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Houghton Point 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 Point against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Houghton Point
Is Houghton Point a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Houghton Point ranks 37,005th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, low disaster risk, and civic engagement, 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 Point expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $263,094. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $64,505 median income, cost of living beats 46% of towns.
Is Houghton Point safe?
Yes, Houghton Point is safer than 68% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $318 per resident a year.
Compare Houghton Point with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Houghton Point. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Houghton Point 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 Point detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Houghton Point: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Houghton Point: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Houghton Point: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Houghton Point: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Houghton Point 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.