Best PlacesRiga, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Riga, 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.
Riga ranks 11,929th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Car insurance costs pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on what local pay buys.
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The best neighborhoods in Riga
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.
Riga's strengths and weaknesses
Where Riga ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 88% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 80% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 88% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of towns
- Household income$97,259 median, better than 83% of towns
Where Riga ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of towns
- Short commute31.7 minutes each way, better than only 25% of towns
- School gradeC, better than only 34% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 29% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 32% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Riga
A household needs to earn about $64,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Riga home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $97,259, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.7% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-08-20 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 Riga's effective rate of 1.12%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Riga
Riga runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Riga.
Who works in Riga, and how
Work in Riga centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Riga
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Riga.
What the weather is like in Riga, month by month
Riga sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 35, with lows near 22. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 67° | 55° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Riga
The nearest airport, Eugene F Kranz Toledo Express, is about 15 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 37 miles away.
The best schools in and around Riga
Schools across Riga average a C, better than 34% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Whiteford Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Britton Deerfield Schooldeerfield BuildingC− · 27% proficient
- Blissfield ElementaryC− · 26% proficient
Top middle schools
- Whiteford Middle SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
- Blissfield Middle SchoolC− · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Blissfield High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
- Whiteford High SchoolC · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Riga school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Riga 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 Riga against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Riga
Is Riga a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Riga ranks 11,929th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, low crime, and health care access, 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 Riga expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $232,108. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $97,259 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Riga safe?
Yes, Riga is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $242 per resident a year.
Compare Riga with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Riga. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Riga 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.
Riga detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Riga: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Riga: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Riga: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Riga: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Riga 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.