Best PlacesWalled Lake, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Walled 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.
Walled Lake ranks 6,040th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Walled 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.
Walled Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Walled Lake ranks high
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 95% of towns
- TransitBetter than 94% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 92% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 89% of towns
Where Walled Lake ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 15% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 22% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 23% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Walled Lake
A household needs to earn about $88,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Walled Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $96,056, 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 Walled Lake's effective rate of 1.13%, 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 Walled Lake
Walled 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 Walled Lake.
Who works in Walled Lake, and how
Work in Walled Lake centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 16%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Walled Lake
Walled Lake has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of towns and more parkland per resident than 91% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Walled Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Walled Lake, month by month
Walled Lake sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 33, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 33° | 26° | 18° |
| April | 60° | 47° | 35° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 62° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Walled Lake
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 24 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 Walled Lake
Schools across Walled Lake average a B, better than 68% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Parkview Elementary SchoolA · 70% proficient
- Oakley Park Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Hickory Woods Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- James R Geisler Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Walnut Creek Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
- Sarah G Banks Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Top high schools
- Walled Lake Northern High SchoolB+ · 56% proficient
- Walled Lake Western High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Walled Lake Central High SchoolB · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Walled Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Walled 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 Walled Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Walled Lake
Is Walled Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Walled Lake ranks 6,040th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, cell coverage, and transit, and lowest on car insurance costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Walled Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $322,427. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $96,056 median income, cost of living beats 79% of towns.
Is Walled Lake safe?
Yes, Walled Lake is safer than 66% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $273 per resident a year.
Compare Walled Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Walled Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Walled 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.
Walled Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Walled Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Walled Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Walled Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Walled Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Walled 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.