Best PlacesWakelee, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wakelee, 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.
Wakelee ranks 24,038th 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 Wakelee
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.
Wakelee's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wakelee ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 83% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 83% of towns
- QuietBetter than 80% of towns
- Cheap childcare$622 a month, better than 77% of towns
Where Wakelee ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 20% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 20% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wakelee
A household needs to earn about $61,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wakelee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,700, 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 Wakelee's effective rate of 0.96%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wakelee
Wakelee runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Wakelee.
Who works in Wakelee, and how
Work in Wakelee centers on manufacturing and construction. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Wakelee
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wakelee.
What the weather is like in Wakelee, month by month
Wakelee sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 21. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 27° | 21° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 54° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Wakelee
The nearest airport, Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International, is about 24 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago Midway International, about 97 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wakelee
Schools across Wakelee average a C−, better than 20% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Marcellus Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Three Rivers Middle SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Dowagiac Middle SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Cassopolis Middle SchoolD− · 15% proficient
Top high schools
- Cassopolis High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
- Marcellus High SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wakelee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wakelee 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 Wakelee against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wakelee
Is Wakelee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wakelee ranks 24,038th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, big-city access, and civic engagement, and lowest on car insurance costs and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wakelee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $229,709. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $79,700 median income, cost of living beats 59% of towns.
Is Wakelee safe?
Yes, Wakelee is safer than 76% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $263 per resident a year.
Compare Wakelee with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wakelee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wakelee 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.
Wakelee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wakelee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wakelee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wakelee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wakelee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wakelee 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.