Best PlacesPinckney, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pinckney, 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.
Pinckney ranks 7,569th 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 Pinckney
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.
Pinckney's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pinckney ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Household income$109,714 median, better than 90% of towns
Where Pinckney ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of towns
- Short commute33.9 minutes each way, better than only 17% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 22% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pinckney
A household needs to earn about $99,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pinckney home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $109,714, 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 Pinckney's effective rate of 1.01%, 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 Pinckney
Pinckney runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pinckney.
Who works in Pinckney, and how
Work in Pinckney centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Pinckney
Pinckney has more restaurants and bars per resident than 68% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Pinckney and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Pinckney, month by month
Pinckney sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 32, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 32° | 26° | 20° |
| April | 58° | 47° | 38° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 63° | 53° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Pinckney
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 34 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 Pinckney
Schools across Pinckney average a B−, better than 55% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wylie Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Farley Hill Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Country Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
Top middle schools
- Beach Middle SchoolB+ · 48% proficient
- Creekside Intermediate SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Parker Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Dexter High SchoolA− · 65% proficient
- Chelsea High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Howell High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pinckney school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pinckney 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 Pinckney against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pinckney
Is Pinckney a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pinckney ranks 7,569th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, health care access, and low crime, and lowest on car insurance costs and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pinckney expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $367,138. The overall cost of living runs about 2% above the national average. Set against a $109,714 median income, cost of living beats 86% of towns.
Is Pinckney safe?
Yes, Pinckney is safer than 94% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $183 per resident a year.
Compare Pinckney with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pinckney. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pinckney 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.
Pinckney detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pinckney: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pinckney: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pinckney: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pinckney: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pinckney 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.