Best PlacesKalamazoo, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Kalamazoo metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by User Mxobe on en.wikipedia, via commons
Kalamazoo ranks 135th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on car insurance costs and a weak job market. It does better on civic engagement, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Kalamazoo metro
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.
The best areas in Kalamazoo
The towns and districts of the Kalamazoo metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Portage
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and prices have run up less.
Vicksburg & Scotts
Crime runs lower, though biking is worse.
Richland & Augusta
It is quieter and health care is easier to reach.
Westwood
Tree cover is thicker, though streets are more car-dependent.
Downtown Kalamazoo
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Galesburg
Homes cost less, though schools score lower.
Eastwood
Health outcomes score lower and fewer residents vote.
Kalamazoo shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 4% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Kalamazoo's strengths and weaknesses
Kalamazoo lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Civic engagement, what local pay buys, and an educated workforce carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Car insurance costs, a weak job market, and property taxes hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Kalamazoo to another than it does between Kalamazoo and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Kalamazoo ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 86% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than 79% of metro areas
Where Kalamazoo ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 18% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 23% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Kalamazoo
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kalamazoo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $83,697, 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 Kalamazoo's effective rate of 1.40%, 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 Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kalamazoo.
Who works in Kalamazoo, and how
Work in Kalamazoo centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 84% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Kalamazoo and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Kalamazoo growing, and who is moving in?
Kalamazoo has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Detroit, MI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Kalamazoo go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Kalamazoo, month by month
Kalamazoo sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 27° | 20° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Kalamazoo
The nearest airport, Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 115 miles away.
The best schools in and around Kalamazoo
Schools across Kalamazoo average a B−, better than 66% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Kingwestwood Elementary SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Moorsbridge Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Mattawan Later Elem SchoolA− · 57% proficient
Top middle schools
- Portage Central Middle SchoolA · 61% proficient
- Maple Street Magnet School For The ArtsA− · 58% proficient
- Hillside Middle SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top high schools
- Loy Norrix High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
- Portage Central High SchoolB+ · 56% proficient
- Kalamazoo Central High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kalamazoo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Kalamazoo 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 Kalamazoo against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Kalamazoo suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 92% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 13% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Kalamazoo
Is Kalamazoo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kalamazoo ranks 135th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on civic engagement, what local pay buys, and an educated workforce, and lowest on car insurance costs and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Kalamazoo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $250,136. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $83,697 median income, cost of living beats 92% of metro areas.
Is Kalamazoo safe?
Yes, Kalamazoo is safer than 58% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $359 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Kalamazoo?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 20. That works out to about 80 pleasant days a year, more than 40% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Kalamazoo?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Portage, Vicksburg & Scotts, and Richland & Augusta. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Kalamazoo good for families?
Schools beat 66% of metro areas, crime safety beats 58%, and childcare runs $732 a month.
Is Kalamazoo good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 92% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 67% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Kalamazoo with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kalamazoo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kalamazoo 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.
Kalamazoo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Kalamazoo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Kalamazoo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Kalamazoo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Kalamazoo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Kalamazoo 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.