Best PlacesStony Lake, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Stony Lake, 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.
Stony Lake ranks 20,093rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Stony 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.
Stony Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Stony Lake ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- QuietBetter than 92% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 90% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 87% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 84% of towns
Where Stony Lake ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 15% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 17% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Stony Lake
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Stony Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $69,411; 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 Stony Lake's effective rate of 0.89%, 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 Stony Lake
Stony Lake runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Stony Lake.
Who works in Stony Lake, and how
Work in Stony Lake centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Stony Lake
Stony Lake has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Stony Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Stony Lake, month by month
Stony Lake sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 26° | 21° |
| April | 56° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 83° | 72° | 61° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Stony Lake
The nearest airport, Muskegon County, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 84 miles away.
The best schools in and around Stony Lake
Schools across Stony Lake average a D+, better than 15% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Oehrli Elementary SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
- Thomas Read Elementary SchoolD · 20% proficient
Top middle schools
- Nellie B Chisholm Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Shelby Middle SchoolD− · 16% proficient
Top high schools
- Montague High SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- Shelby High SchoolD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Stony Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Stony 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 Stony Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Stony Lake
Is Stony Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Stony Lake ranks 20,093rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, quiet, and a strong job market, 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 Stony Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $269,967. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $69,411 median income, cost of living beats 51% of towns.
Is Stony Lake safe?
Yes, Stony Lake is safer than 84% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $226 per resident a year.
Compare Stony Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Stony Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Stony 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.
Stony Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Stony Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Stony Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Stony Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Stony Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Stony 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.