Best PlacesPleasant Lake, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pleasant Lake, 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.
Pleasant Lake ranks 14,739th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Pleasant Lake
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.
Pleasant Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pleasant Lake ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 85% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 84% of towns
- Cheap childcare$568 a month, better than 83% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 82% of towns
Where Pleasant Lake ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 8% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 20% 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 Pleasant Lake
A household needs to earn about $59,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pleasant Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $94,231, 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 Pleasant Lake's effective rate of 0.98%, 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 Pleasant Lake
Pleasant Lake runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Pleasant Lake.
Who works in Pleasant Lake, and how
Work in Pleasant Lake centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Pleasant Lake
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Pleasant Lake.
What the weather is like in Pleasant Lake, month by month
Pleasant Lake sees roughly 91 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 26° | 18° |
| April | 61° | 47° | 35° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 60° |
| October | 65° | 53° | 42° |
Flying in and out of Pleasant Lake
The nearest airport, Capital Region International, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 52 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pleasant Lake
Schools across Pleasant Lake average a C−, better than 20% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Woodworth Elementary SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- Northwest Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
- East Jackson ElementaryD− · 11% proficient
Top middle schools
- Leslie Middle SchoolD+ · 26% proficient
- Northwest Kidder Middle SchoolD · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Northwest High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Leslie High SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
- East Jackson Secondary SchoolD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pleasant Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pleasant Lake 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 Pleasant Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pleasant Lake
Is Pleasant Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pleasant Lake ranks 14,739th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a stable housing market, what local pay buys, and civic engagement, and lowest on car insurance costs and a weak job market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Pleasant Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $218,736. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $94,231 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Pleasant Lake safe?
Yes, Pleasant Lake is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $239 per resident a year.
Compare Pleasant Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pleasant Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pleasant Lake 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.
Pleasant Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pleasant Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pleasant Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pleasant Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pleasant Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pleasant Lake 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.