Best PlacesNovi, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Novi, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Novi ranks 208th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Novi
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.
Novi's strengths and weaknesses
Where Novi ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 94% of cities
- Educational attainmentBetter than 93% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 91% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 90% of cities
Where Novi ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 17% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 27% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 28% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 31% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Novi
A household needs to earn about $123,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Novi home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $134,478, 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 Novi's effective rate of 1.31%, 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 Novi
Novi's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Novi.
Who works in Novi, and how
Work in Novi centers on manufacturing and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Novi
Novi has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of cities and more parkland per resident than 91% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Novi and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Novi, month by month
Novi sees roughly 96 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 26° | 18° |
| April | 60° | 47° | 35° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Novi
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 20 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 Novi
Schools across Novi average an A−, better than 87% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Amerman Elementary SchoolA+ · 84% proficient
- Novi Woods Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
- Deerfield Elementary SchoolA+ · 78% proficient
Top middle schools
- Novi Middle SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Novi Meadows SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Hillside Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Northville High SchoolA− · 66% proficient
- Novi High SchoolA− · 66% proficient
- Walled Lake Western High SchoolB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Novi school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Novi 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 Novi against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Novi suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of cities and 24% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 57% of cities, health care access beats 90%, and it is quieter than 88%.
Common questions about living in Novi
Is Novi a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Novi ranks 208th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on heat safety, an educated workforce, and population health, and lowest on car insurance costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Novi expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $440,973. The overall cost of living runs about 1% above the national average. Set against a $134,478 median income, cost of living beats 88% of cities.
Is Novi safe?
Yes, Novi is safer than 74% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $264 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Novi?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 18. That works out to about 96 pleasant days a year, more than 57% of cities.
Is Novi good for families?
Schools beat 87% of cities, crime safety beats 74%, and childcare runs $916 a month.
Compare Novi with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Novi. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Novi 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.
Novi detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Novi: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Novi: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Novi: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Novi: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Novi 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.