Best PlacesSkanee, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Skanee, 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.
Skanee ranks 29,325th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on clean air by a wide margin, and cell coverage ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Skanee
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.
Skanee's strengths and weaknesses
Where Skanee ranks high
- Air qualityBetter than 99% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- School gradeA−, better than 88% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 85% of towns
Where Skanee ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Skanee
A household needs to earn about $53,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Skanee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $59,903, 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 Skanee's effective rate of 0.94%, 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 Skanee
Skanee 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 Skanee.
Who works in Skanee, and how
Work in Skanee centers on public administration and health care & social. Unemployment is low, 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 3%
Life in Skanee
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Skanee.
What the weather is like in Skanee, month by month
Skanee sees roughly 113 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 80 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 20° | 13° |
| April | 48° | 37° | 28° |
| July | 80° | 67° | 55° |
| October | 57° | 47° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Skanee
The nearest airport, Houghton County Memorial, is about 26 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 271 miles away.
The best schools in and around Skanee
Schools across Skanee average an A−, better than 88% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Arvon Township SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Powell Twp Elementary SchoolD+ · 22% proficient
Top high schools
- Houghton Central High SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Marquette Senior High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Negaunee High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Skanee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Skanee 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 Skanee against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Skanee
Is Skanee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Skanee ranks 29,325th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on clean air, low disaster risk, and tree cover, and lowest on cell coverage 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 Skanee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $200,738. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $59,903 median income, cost of living beats 34% of towns.
Is Skanee safe?
Skanee is safer than 19% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $499 per resident a year.
Compare Skanee with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Skanee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Skanee 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.
Skanee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Skanee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Skanee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Skanee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Skanee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Skanee 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.