Best PlacesMadison Heights, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Madison Heights, 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.
Madison Heights ranks 1,485th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Madison Heights
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.
Madison Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Madison Heights ranks high
- BikingBetter than 97% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 90% of cities
- TransitBetter than 84% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 80% of cities
Where Madison Heights ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of cities
- QuietBetter than only 4% of cities
- School gradeD+, better than only 7% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 17% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 22% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Madison Heights
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Madison Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $76,421, 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 Madison Heights' effective rate of 1.45%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Madison Heights
Madison Heights's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Madison Heights.
Who works in Madison Heights, and how
Work in Madison Heights centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Madison Heights
Madison Heights has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of cities and more parkland per resident than 88% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Madison Heights and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Madison Heights, month by month
Madison Heights sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 23° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Madison Heights
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 24 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 168 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Madison Heights
Schools across Madison Heights average a D+, better than 7% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Lessenger Elementary SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Oak Ridge Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Keller ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Royal Oak Middle SchoolB− · 39% proficient
- Page Middle SchoolD+ · 27% proficient
- Wilkinson Middle SchoolF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Royal Oak High SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Lamphere CenterB · 50% proficient
- Lamphere High SchoolC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Madison Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Madison Heights 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 Madison Heights against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Madison Heights suits
Common questions about living in Madison Heights
Is Madison Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Madison Heights ranks 1,485th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on biking, walkability, and a stable housing market, and lowest on car insurance costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Madison Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $198,705. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $76,421 median income, cost of living beats 36% of cities.
Is Madison Heights safe?
Madison Heights is safer than 22% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $428 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Madison Heights?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 23. That works out to about 85 pleasant days a year, more than 49% of cities.
Is Madison Heights good for families?
Schools beat 7% of cities, crime safety beats 22%, and childcare runs $916 a month.
Compare Madison Heights with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Madison Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Madison Heights 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.
Madison Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Madison Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Madison Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Madison Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Madison Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Madison Heights 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.