Best PlacesOak Grove, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Oak Grove, 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.
Oak Grove ranks 22,614th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Oak Grove
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.
Oak Grove's strengths and weaknesses
Where Oak Grove ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 89% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Short commute20.1 minutes each way, better than 87% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 87% of towns
Where Oak Grove ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 8% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 13% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 29% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Oak Grove
A household needs to earn about $54,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oak Grove home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $64,978, 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 Oak Grove'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 Oak Grove
Oak Grove runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Oak Grove.
Who works in Oak Grove, and how
Work in Oak Grove centers on hospitality & food and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Oak Grove
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Oak Grove.
What the weather is like in Oak Grove, month by month
Oak Grove sees roughly 99 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 22° | 14° |
| April | 53° | 41° | 30° |
| July | 82° | 69° | 56° |
| October | 59° | 49° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Oak Grove
The nearest airport, Pellston Regional/Emmet County, is about 40 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 204 miles away.
The best schools in and around Oak Grove
Schools across Oak Grove average a B−, better than 55% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- South Maple Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- North Ohio Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Gaylord Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Gaylord Intermediate SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Gaylord High Schoolvoc BldgB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oak Grove school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Oak Grove 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 Oak Grove against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Oak Grove
Is Oak Grove a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oak Grove ranks 22,614th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, few empty homes, and health care access, 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 Oak Grove expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $207,774. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $64,978 median income, cost of living beats 46% of towns.
Is Oak Grove safe?
Yes, Oak Grove is safer than 59% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $292 per resident a year.
Compare Oak Grove with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oak Grove. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oak Grove 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.
Oak Grove detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Oak Grove: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Oak Grove: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Oak Grove: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Oak Grove: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Oak Grove 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.