Best PlacesTraverse City, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Traverse City metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Phoenix-Five, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Traverse City ranks 150th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is internet speeds: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Traverse City metro
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.
The best areas in Traverse City
The towns and districts of the Traverse City metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Suttons Bay
More adults hold degrees, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Lake Ann
Tree cover is thicker and more households have young kids.
Downtown Traverse City
Fewer homes sit empty and biking is better.
Williamsburg & Rapid City
It is quieter, though commutes are longer.
Kalkaska
Homes cost less and prices have run up less.
Kingsley & Grawn
Crime runs lower, though health care is harder to reach.
Interlochen, Frankfort & Beulah
Fewer residents vote.
Fife Lake
Schools score lower and advertised internet is slower.
Traverse City shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 5% of the country and others in the top 7%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Traverse City's strengths and weaknesses
Traverse City lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Quiet is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Health care access and civic engagement follow.
The one real hole is internet speeds, near the bottom of the country. Empty homes and cell coverage 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 Traverse City ranks high
- QuietBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 89% of metro areas
Where Traverse City ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Local economyBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Traverse City
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Traverse City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $84,673; 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 Traverse City's effective rate of 0.83%, 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 Traverse City
Traverse City 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 Traverse City.
Who works in Traverse City, and how
Work in Traverse City centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Traverse City
Traverse City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 81% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Traverse City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Traverse City growing, and who is moving in?
Traverse City has grown about 6% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Detroit, MI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Traverse City go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Traverse City, month by month
Traverse City sees roughly 103 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 26° | 20° |
| April | 56° | 43° | 33° |
| July | 85° | 72° | 60° |
| October | 63° | 52° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Traverse City
The nearest airport, Cherry Capital, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 168 miles away.
The best schools in and around Traverse City
Schools across Traverse City average a B−, better than 50% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Kingsley Area Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Central Grade SchoolA− · 57% proficient
- Willow Hill Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Kingsley Area Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- Cherryland Middle SchoolB · 47% proficient
- East Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Central High SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Elk Rapids High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- West Senior HighB · 46% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Traverse City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Traverse City 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 Traverse City against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Traverse City suits
Families
Schools land around the 50th percentile and crime safety beats 84%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 76% of metro areas and 14% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 61% of metro areas, health care access beats 99%, and it is quieter than 100%.
Common questions about living in Traverse City
Is Traverse City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Traverse City ranks 150th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on quiet, health care access, and civic engagement, and lowest on internet speeds and empty homes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Traverse City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $350,326. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $84,673 median income, cost of living beats 76% of metro areas.
Is Traverse City safe?
Yes, Traverse City is safer than 84% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $288 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Traverse City?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 33 with lows near 20. That works out to about 103 pleasant days a year, more than 61% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Traverse City?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Suttons Bay, Lake Ann, and Downtown Traverse City. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Traverse City good for families?
Schools beat 50% of metro areas, crime safety beats 84%, and childcare runs $740 a month.
Is Traverse City good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 76% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 1% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Traverse City with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Traverse City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Traverse City 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.
Traverse City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Traverse City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Traverse City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Traverse City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Traverse City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Traverse City 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.