Best PlacesPaulding, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Paulding, 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.
Paulding ranks 41,089th 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 Paulding
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.
Paulding's strengths and weaknesses
Where Paulding ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- QuietBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 85% of towns
Where Paulding ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Paulding
A household needs to earn about $40,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Paulding home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $51,135, 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 Paulding's effective rate of 1.10%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Paulding
Paulding 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 Paulding.
Who works in Paulding, and how
Work in Paulding centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Paulding
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Paulding.
What the weather is like in Paulding, month by month
Paulding sees roughly 91 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 24, with lows near 8. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 24° | 16° | 8° |
| April | 50° | 38° | 28° |
| July | 80° | 66° | 54° |
| October | 55° | 44° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Paulding
The nearest airport, Gogebic/Iron County, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 219 miles away.
The best schools in and around Paulding
Schools across Paulding average a D+, better than 10% of towns.
Top high schools
- Ewentrout Creek Consolidated SchoolC+ · 25% proficient
- Watersmeet Township SchoolD− · 12% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Paulding school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Paulding 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 Paulding against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Paulding
Is Paulding a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Paulding ranks 41,089th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, quiet, and tree cover, 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 Paulding expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $145,825. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $51,135 median income, cost of living beats 15% of towns.
Is Paulding safe?
Paulding is safer than 41% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $367 per resident a year.
Compare Paulding with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Paulding. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Paulding 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.
Paulding detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Paulding: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Paulding: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Paulding: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Paulding: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Paulding 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.