Best PlacesNiles, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Niles 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 Chris Light, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Niles ranks 262nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on a weak job market and car insurance costs. It does better on low disaster risk, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Niles 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 Niles
The towns and districts of the Niles 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.
Stevensville, St. Joseph & Bridgman
Local pay stretches further, schools score higher, and incomes run higher.
Buchanan
More homes sit empty and fewer households have young kids.
Berrien Springs & Eau Claire
It is quieter and more adults hold degrees.
New Buffalo & Three Oaks
Prices have run up more and homes cost more.
Downtown Niles
Scores close to New Buffalo & Three Oaks, except that health care is harder to reach here.
Coloma & Watervliet
Health outcomes score lower and biking is worse.
Benton Harbor & Fair Plain
Crime runs higher and fewer residents vote.
Niles shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 2%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Niles' strengths and weaknesses
Niles lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Low disaster risk, civic engagement, and affordable childcare carry most of that.
The one real hole is a weak job market, near the bottom of the country. Car insurance costs and empty homes also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Niles ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$624 a month, better than 89% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 79% of metro areas
Where Niles ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Nice weatherabout 69 pleasant days a year, better than only 20% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Niles
A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Niles home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $71,956, 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 Niles' effective rate of 1.05%, 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 Niles
Niles 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 Niles.
Who works in Niles, and how
Work in Niles 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 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Niles
Niles has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 75% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Niles and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Niles growing, and who is moving in?
Niles has lost about 2% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from South Bend, IN.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Niles go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Niles, month by month
Niles sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 19. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 27° | 19° |
| April | 62° | 48° | 36° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 67° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Niles
The nearest airport, South Bend International, is about 9 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 78 miles away.
The best schools in and around Niles
Schools across Niles average a C, better than 22% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Moccasin Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Eastside Connections SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Howardellis Elementary SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top middle schools
- Edwardsburg Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Buchanan Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Ring Lardner Middle SchoolC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- Way NilesB · 50% proficient
- Edwardsburg High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Buchanan High SchoolC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Niles school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Niles 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 Niles against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Niles suits
Common questions about living in Niles
Is Niles a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Niles ranks 262nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low disaster risk, civic engagement, and affordable childcare, and lowest on a weak job market 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 Niles expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $233,734. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $71,956 median income, cost of living beats 65% of metro areas.
Is Niles safe?
Niles is safer than 51% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $386 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Niles?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 35 with lows near 19. That works out to about 69 pleasant days a year, more than 20% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Niles?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Stevensville, St. Joseph & Bridgman, Buchanan, and Berrien Springs & Eau Claire. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Niles good for families?
Schools beat 22% of metro areas, crime safety beats 51%, and childcare runs $624 a month.
Is Niles good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 65% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 39% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Niles with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Niles. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Niles 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.
Niles detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Niles: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Niles: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Niles: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Niles: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Niles 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.