Best PlacesMinor Beach, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Minor Beach, 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.
Minor Beach ranks 13,805th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Minor Beach
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.
Minor Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Minor Beach ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute15.6 minutes each way, better than 97% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 93% of towns
- QuietBetter than 93% of towns
Where Minor Beach ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 16% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Minor Beach
A household needs to earn about $47,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Minor Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,065, 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 Minor Beach's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 Minor Beach
Minor Beach 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 Minor Beach.
Who works in Minor Beach, and how
Work in Minor Beach centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Minor Beach
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Minor Beach.
What the weather is like in Minor Beach, month by month
Minor Beach sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 77 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 21° | 13° |
| April | 48° | 37° | 28° |
| July | 77° | 66° | 54° |
| October | 57° | 47° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Minor Beach
The nearest airport, Delta County, is about 39 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 221 miles away.
The best schools in and around Minor Beach
Schools across Minor Beach average a C−, better than 20% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Emerald Elementary SchoolC− · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Minor Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Minor Beach 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 Minor Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Minor Beach
Is Minor Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Minor Beach ranks 13,805th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, short commutes, and civic engagement, and lowest on distance from a big city and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Minor Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $182,387. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $87,065 median income, cost of living beats 87% of towns.
Is Minor Beach safe?
Minor Beach is safer than 51% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $321 per resident a year.
Compare Minor Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Minor Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Minor Beach 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.
Minor Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Minor Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Minor Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Minor Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Minor Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Minor Beach 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.