Best PlacesLachine, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lachine, 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.
Lachine ranks 32,328th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lachine
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.
Lachine's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lachine ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- QuietBetter than 92% of towns
- Cheap childcare$563 a month, better than 85% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 84% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 81% of towns
Where Lachine ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 65 pleasant days a year, better than only 15% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lachine
A household needs to earn about $43,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lachine home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,158, 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 Lachine's effective rate of 0.82%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lachine
Lachine 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 Lachine.
Who works in Lachine, and how
Work in Lachine centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Lachine
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lachine.
What the weather is like in Lachine, month by month
Lachine sees roughly 65 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 23° | 14° |
| April | 54° | 41° | 30° |
| July | 84° | 70° | 56° |
| October | 62° | 50° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Lachine
The nearest airport, Alpena County Regional, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 197 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lachine
Schools across Lachine average a C−, better than 19% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wilson ElementaryD+ · 23% proficient
- Hillman Elementary SchoolD · 17% proficient
Top middle schools
- Thunder Bay Junior High SchoolD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Alpena High SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Posen Consolidated High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
- Hillman Community Jrsr High SchoolD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lachine school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lachine 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 Lachine against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lachine
Is Lachine a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lachine ranks 32,328th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, quiet, and affordable childcare, and lowest on car insurance costs and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lachine expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $162,445. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $61,158 median income, cost of living beats 40% of towns.
Is Lachine safe?
Yes, Lachine is safer than 81% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $247 per resident a year.
Compare Lachine with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lachine. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lachine 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.
Lachine detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lachine: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lachine: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lachine: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lachine: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lachine 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.