Best PlacesSpring Lake, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Spring Lake, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Spring Lake ranks 3,483rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Spring Lake
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.
Spring Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Spring Lake ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 93% of towns
Where Spring Lake ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 24% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 24% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Spring Lake
A household needs to earn about $98,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Spring Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $97,605; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Spring Lake's effective rate of 1.09%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Spring Lake
Spring Lake 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 Spring Lake.
Who works in Spring Lake, and how
Work in Spring Lake centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Spring Lake
Spring Lake has more parkland per resident than 84% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Spring Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Spring Lake, month by month
Spring Lake sees roughly 73 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 September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 35° | 28° | 22° |
| April | 59° | 47° | 36° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Spring Lake
The nearest airport, Muskegon County, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 87 miles away.
The best schools in and around Spring Lake
Schools across Spring Lake average a B, better than 75% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Holmes Elementary SchoolA+ · 83% proficient
- Jeffers Elementary SchoolA+ · 80% proficient
- Robinson SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Spring Lake Intermediate SchoolA+ · 70% proficient
- Spring Lake Middle SchoolA · 62% proficient
- White Pines Intermediate SchoolA− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- Spring Lake High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Grand Haven High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Spring Lake Alternative EducationD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Spring Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Spring Lake 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 Spring Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Spring Lake
Is Spring Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Spring Lake ranks 3,483rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, civic engagement, and biking, and lowest on car insurance costs and state finances. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Spring Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $361,748. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $97,605 median income, cost of living beats 84% of towns.
Is Spring Lake safe?
Yes, Spring Lake is safer than 98% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $153 per resident a year.
Compare Spring Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Spring Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Spring Lake 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.
Spring Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Spring Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Spring Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Spring Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Spring Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Spring Lake 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.