Best PlacesPearl, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pearl, 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.
Pearl ranks 36,458th 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 Pearl
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.
Pearl's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pearl ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 84% of towns
- Cheap childcare$603 a month, better than 78% of towns
Where Pearl ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of towns
- School gradeD, better than only 5% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 12% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pearl
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pearl home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,499, 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 Pearl's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Pearl
Pearl's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pearl.
Who works in Pearl, and how
Work in Pearl centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Pearl
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Pearl.
What the weather is like in Pearl, month by month
Pearl sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 28° | 21° |
| April | 59° | 47° | 37° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 61° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Pearl
The nearest airport, Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 97 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pearl
Schools across Pearl average a D, better than 5% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Fennville Elementary SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Pullman Elementary SchoolF · 10% proficient
Top middle schools
- Fennville Middle SchoolD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Fennville Public High SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pearl school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pearl 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 Pearl against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pearl
Is Pearl a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pearl ranks 36,458th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, tree cover, and heat safety, and lowest on car insurance costs and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pearl expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $230,335. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $70,499 median income, cost of living beats 37% of towns.
Is Pearl safe?
Pearl is safer than 47% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $342 per resident a year.
Compare Pearl with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pearl. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pearl 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.
Pearl detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pearl: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pearl: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pearl: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pearl: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pearl 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.