Best PlacesPlainwell, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Plainwell, 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.
Plainwell ranks 16,038th 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 Plainwell
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.
Plainwell's strengths and weaknesses
Where Plainwell ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 93% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 88% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 86% of towns
- BikingBetter than 84% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 83% of towns
Where Plainwell ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 17% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 21% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Plainwell
A household needs to earn about $74,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Plainwell home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,344, 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 Plainwell's effective rate of 1.11%, 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 Plainwell
Plainwell 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 Plainwell.
Who works in Plainwell, and how
Work in Plainwell centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Plainwell
Plainwell has more restaurants and bars per resident than 73% of towns and more parkland per resident than 85% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Plainwell and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Plainwell, month by month
Plainwell sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 27° | 20° |
| April | 62° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 86° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 66° | 54° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Plainwell
The nearest airport, Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 117 miles away.
The best schools in and around Plainwell
Schools across Plainwell average a C, better than 37% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Dix Street Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Alamo Elementary SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Thomas M Ryan Intermediate SchoolB · 46% proficient
Top middle schools
- Gull Lake Middle SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Otsego Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Plainwell Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
Top high schools
- Otsego High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Gull Lake High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Plainwell High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Plainwell school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Plainwell 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 Plainwell against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Plainwell
Is Plainwell a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Plainwell ranks 16,038th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on civic engagement, walkability, and low crime, 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 Plainwell expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $270,575. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $78,344 median income, cost of living beats 68% of towns.
Is Plainwell safe?
Yes, Plainwell is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $225 per resident a year.
Compare Plainwell with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Plainwell. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Plainwell 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.
Plainwell detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Plainwell: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Plainwell: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Plainwell: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Plainwell: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Plainwell 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.