Best PlacesSterling Heights, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sterling Heights, 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.
Sterling Heights ranks 262nd of 445 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on a weak job market and car insurance costs. It does better on few empty homes, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Sterling Heights
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.
Sterling Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Sterling Heights lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Few empty homes, health care access, and civic engagement carry most of that.
The one real hole is a weak job market, near the bottom of the country. Car insurance costs and health outcomes also cost it ground. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Sterling Heights ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 94% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 92% of cities
- Voter turnoutBetter than 88% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than 85% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 82% of cities
Where Sterling Heights ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 5% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of cities
- Health outlookBetter than only 10% of cities
- Internet speedBetter than only 14% of cities
- Nice weatherabout 73 pleasant days a year, better than only 25% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Sterling Heights
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sterling Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $85,336, 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 Sterling Heights' effective rate of 1.24%, 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 Sterling Heights
Sterling Heights's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Sterling Heights.
Who works in Sterling Heights, and how
Work in Sterling Heights centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Sterling Heights
Sterling Heights has more restaurants and bars per resident than 71% of cities and more parkland per resident than 91% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Sterling Heights and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sterling Heights, month by month
Sterling Heights sees roughly 73 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 Sterling Heights
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 30 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 Sterling Heights
Schools across Sterling Heights average a C, better than 31% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Messmore Elementary SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Dekeyser Elementary SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Browning Elementary SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bemis Junior High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Eppler Junior High SchoolB− · 40% proficient
- Heritage Junior High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Henry Ford Ii High SchoolC · 35% proficient
- Adlai Stevenson High SchoolC · 34% proficient
- Sterling Heights Senior HsD+ · 24% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sterling Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sterling Heights 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 Sterling Heights against the other 444 cities.
Who Sterling Heights suits
Families
Schools land around the 31st percentile and crime safety beats 85%.
Common questions about living in Sterling Heights
Is Sterling Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sterling Heights ranks 262nd of 445 cities. It scores highest on few empty homes, health care access, and civic engagement, and lowest on a weak job market 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 Sterling Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $274,992. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $85,336 median income, cost of living beats 51% of cities.
Is Sterling Heights safe?
Yes, Sterling Heights is safer than 85% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $278 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Sterling Heights?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 23. That works out to about 73 pleasant days a year, more than 25% of cities.
Is Sterling Heights good for families?
Schools beat 31% of cities, crime safety beats 85%, and childcare runs $860 a month.
Is Sterling Heights good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 51% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 14% of cities. About 16% of workers already work from home.
Compare Sterling Heights with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sterling Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sterling Heights 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.
Sterling Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sterling Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sterling Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sterling Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sterling Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sterling Heights 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.