Best PlacesMancelona, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mancelona, 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.
Mancelona ranks 36,257th 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 Mancelona
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.
Mancelona's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mancelona ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 83% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 78% of towns
- BikingBetter than 76% of towns
Where Mancelona ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 10% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 11% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 19% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mancelona
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mancelona home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $62,706, 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 Mancelona'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, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mancelona
Mancelona 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 Mancelona.
Who works in Mancelona, and how
Work in Mancelona centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Mancelona
Mancelona has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Mancelona and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mancelona, month by month
Mancelona sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 24° | 19° |
| April | 53° | 42° | 33° |
| July | 81° | 69° | 58° |
| October | 59° | 50° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Mancelona
The nearest airport, Cherry Capital, is about 28 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 195 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mancelona
Schools across Mancelona average a C−, better than 19% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Birch Street Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Mancelona Elementary SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- John R Rodger Elementary SchoolD · 17% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mancelona Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Kalkaska Middle SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- East Jordan Middlehigh SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Kalkaska High SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Bellaire Middlehigh SchoolC · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mancelona school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mancelona 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 Mancelona against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mancelona
Is Mancelona a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mancelona ranks 36,257th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, heat safety, and walkability, 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 Mancelona expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $164,226. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $62,706 median income, cost of living beats 28% of towns.
Is Mancelona safe?
Mancelona is safer than 52% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $376 per resident a year.
Compare Mancelona with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mancelona. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mancelona 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.
Mancelona detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mancelona: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mancelona: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mancelona: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mancelona: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mancelona 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.