Best PlacesSister Lakes, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sister Lakes, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Sister Lakes ranks 24,933rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Car insurance costs pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in Sister Lakes
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.
Sister Lakes' strengths and weaknesses
Where Sister Lakes ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 87% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of towns
- QuietBetter than 86% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 83% of towns
Where Sister Lakes ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 10% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 24% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sister Lakes
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sister Lakes home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,660, 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 Sister Lakes' effective rate of 0.90%, 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 Sister Lakes
Sister Lakes 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 Sister Lakes.
Who works in Sister Lakes, and how
Work in Sister Lakes centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Sister Lakes
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Sister Lakes.
What the weather is like in Sister Lakes, month by month
Sister Lakes sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 36, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 36° | 29° | 21° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 36° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 61° |
| October | 66° | 55° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Sister Lakes
The nearest airport, South Bend International, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 82 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sister Lakes
Schools across Sister Lakes average a D+, better than 10% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sister Lakes Elementary SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
- Lybrook Elementary SchoolF · 7% proficient
Top middle schools
- Watervliet Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Dowagiac Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Eau Claire Middle SchoolD− · 14% proficient
Top high schools
- Watervliet Senior High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
- Union High SchoolD · 22% proficient
- Eau Claire High SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sister Lakes school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sister Lakes 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 Sister Lakes against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sister Lakes
Is Sister Lakes a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sister Lakes ranks 24,933rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, big-city access, and health care access, and lowest on car insurance costs and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sister Lakes expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $259,016. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $69,660 median income, cost of living beats 56% of towns.
Is Sister Lakes safe?
Yes, Sister Lakes is safer than 69% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $280 per resident a year.
Compare Sister Lakes with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sister Lakes. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sister Lakes 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.
Sister Lakes detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sister Lakes: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sister Lakes: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sister Lakes: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sister Lakes: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sister Lakes 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.