Best PlacesHowardsville, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Howardsville, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Howardsville ranks 12,726th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a strong job market by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Howardsville
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.
Howardsville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Howardsville ranks high
- Local economyBetter than 96% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 93% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 86% of towns
Where Howardsville ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 14% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 20% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Howardsville
A household needs to earn about $65,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Howardsville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,412, 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 Howardsville's effective rate of 0.89%, 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 Howardsville
Howardsville 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 Howardsville.
Who works in Howardsville, and how
Work in Howardsville centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Howardsville
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Howardsville.
What the weather is like in Howardsville, month by month
Howardsville sees roughly 87 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Howardsville
The nearest airport, Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International, is about 18 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 105 miles away.
The best schools in and around Howardsville
Schools across Howardsville average a C, better than 32% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Norton Elementary SchoolB− · 44% proficient
- Park Elementary SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Marcellus Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Three Rivers Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Three Rivers High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Marcellus High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Howardsville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Howardsville 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 Howardsville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Howardsville
Is Howardsville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Howardsville ranks 12,726th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a strong job market, low crime, and civic engagement, and lowest on car insurance costs and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Howardsville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $244,251. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $83,412 median income, cost of living beats 71% of towns.
Is Howardsville safe?
Yes, Howardsville is safer than 95% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $178 per resident a year.
Compare Howardsville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Howardsville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Howardsville 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.
Howardsville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Howardsville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Howardsville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Howardsville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Howardsville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Howardsville 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.