Best PlacesSouthfield, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Southfield, 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.
Southfield ranks 1,780th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. Car insurance costs pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on biking.
The best neighborhoods in Southfield
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.
Southfield's strengths and weaknesses
Where Southfield ranks high
- BikingBetter than 87% of cities
- TransitBetter than 82% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 79% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 76% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than 72% of cities
Where Southfield ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of cities
- Local economyBetter than only 1% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of cities
- School gradeD, better than only 5% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 15% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Southfield
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Southfield home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,101, 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 Southfield's effective rate of 1.66%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Southfield
Southfield 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 Southfield.
Who works in Southfield, and how
Work in Southfield centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 76%
- Work from home 18%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Southfield
Southfield has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of cities and more parkland per resident than 92% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Southfield and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Southfield, month by month
Southfield sees roughly 88 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 23° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Southfield
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 19 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 168 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Southfield
Schools across Southfield average a D, better than 5% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Beverly Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Angell Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Bingham Farms Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Berkshire Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Warner Middle SchoolB− · 39% proficient
- Anderson Middle SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Wylie E Groves High SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Berkley High SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Farmington High SchoolB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Southfield school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Southfield 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 Southfield against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Southfield suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 18% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Southfield
Is Southfield a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Southfield ranks 1,780th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on biking, transit, and low disaster risk, 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 Southfield expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $231,986. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $73,101 median income, cost of living beats 36% of cities.
Is Southfield safe?
Southfield is safer than 4% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $667 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Southfield?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 23. That works out to about 88 pleasant days a year, more than 52% of cities.
Is Southfield good for families?
Schools beat 5% of cities, crime safety beats 4%, and childcare runs $916 a month.
Compare Southfield with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Southfield. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Southfield 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.
Southfield detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Southfield: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Southfield: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Southfield: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Southfield: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Southfield 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.