Best PlacesSault Ste. Marie, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sault Ste. Marie, 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.
Sault Ste. Marie ranks 35,530th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Sault Ste. Marie
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.
Sault Ste. Marie's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sault Ste. Marie ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Short commute13.1 minutes each way, better than 99% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 98% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 94% of towns
Where Sault Ste. Marie ranks low
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sault Ste. Marie
A household needs to earn about $41,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sault Ste. Marie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $55,375, 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 Sault Ste. Marie's effective rate of 1.53%, 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 Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie runs younger 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 Sault Ste. Marie.
Who works in Sault Ste. Marie, and how
Work in Sault Ste. Marie centers on retail trade and hospitality & food. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Sault Ste. Marie
Sault Ste. Marie has more restaurants and bars per resident than 97% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Sault Ste. Marie and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sault Ste. Marie, month by month
Sault Ste. Marie sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 20° | 12° |
| April | 50° | 39° | 30° |
| July | 80° | 67° | 56° |
| October | 58° | 48° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Sault Ste. Marie
The nearest airport, Chippewa County International, is about 17 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Detroit Metro Wayne County, about 299 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sault Ste. Marie
Schools across Sault Ste. Marie average a C, better than 37% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lincoln SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Joseph K Lumsden Bahweting Anishnabe AcademyC · 32% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sault Area Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Sault Area High SchoolC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sault Ste. Marie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sault Ste. Marie 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 Sault Ste. Marie against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sault Ste. Marie
Is Sault Ste. Marie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sault Ste. Marie ranks 35,530th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, short commutes, and clean air, and lowest on distance from a big city and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sault Ste. Marie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $144,064. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $55,375 median income, cost of living beats 22% of towns.
Is Sault Ste. Marie safe?
Sault Ste. Marie is safer than 4% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $865 per resident a year.
Compare Sault Ste. Marie with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sault Ste. Marie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sault Ste. Marie 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.
Sault Ste. Marie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sault Ste. Marie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sault Ste. Marie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sault Ste. Marie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sault Ste. Marie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sault Ste. Marie 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.