Best PlacesYpsilanti, MI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Ypsilanti, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Ypsilanti ranks 281st 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 civic engagement, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Ypsilanti
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 Ypsilanti
The parts of Ypsilanti, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the city.
Carpenter
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Downtown Pittsfield
More households have young kids, though it is noisier.
Northwestern Ypsilanti
Transit reaches more jobs, though fewer residents vote.
Ypsilanti Historic District
Biking is better.
West Willow
Health outcomes score lower and crime runs higher.
Ypsilanti shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 5% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Ypsilanti's strengths and weaknesses
Ypsilanti lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Civic engagement, heat safety, and a stable housing market carry most of that.
The one real hole is a weak job market, near the bottom of the country. Car insurance costs and walkability 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 Ypsilanti ranks high
- Voter turnoutBetter than 90% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than 90% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 88% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 82% of cities
- QuietBetter than 80% of cities
Where Ypsilanti ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 2% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of cities
- WalkabilityBetter than only 15% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than only 17% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Ypsilanti
A household needs to earn about $75,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Ypsilanti home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,244, 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 Ypsilanti's effective rate of 1.49%, 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 Ypsilanti
Ypsilanti runs younger 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 Ypsilanti.
Who works in Ypsilanti, and how
Work in Ypsilanti centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 74%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Ypsilanti
Ypsilanti has more parkland per resident than 93% of cities. That concentrates in some parts of Ypsilanti and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Ypsilanti, month by month
Ypsilanti sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 88 degrees. January highs sit near 37, with lows near 20. The comfortable stretch runs May, June, and August through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37° | 28° | 20° |
| April | 63° | 49° | 37° |
| July | 88° | 76° | 63° |
| October | 68° | 55° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Ypsilanti
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 13 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 Ypsilanti
Schools across Ypsilanti average a C, better than 30% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Martin Luther King Elem SchoolA+ · 75% proficient
- Burns Park Elementary SchoolA · 72% proficient
- Harvest Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Clague Middle SchoolA+ · 76% proficient
- Washtenaw International Middle AcademyA+ · 75% proficient
- Tappan Middle SchoolA+ · 68% proficient
Top high schools
- Washtenaw International High SchoolA · 73% proficient
- Huron High SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Early College AllianceB+ · 58% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Ypsilanti school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Ypsilanti 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 Ypsilanti against the other 444 cities.
Who Ypsilanti suits
Common questions about living in Ypsilanti
Is Ypsilanti a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Ypsilanti ranks 281st of 445 cities. It scores highest on civic engagement, heat safety, and a stable housing market, 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 Ypsilanti expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $263,755. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $82,244 median income, cost of living beats 49% of cities.
Is Ypsilanti safe?
Ypsilanti is safer than 42% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $456 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Ypsilanti?
July highs average about 88 degrees, and January highs near 37 with lows near 20. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 29% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Ypsilanti?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Carpenter, Downtown Pittsfield, and Northwestern Ypsilanti. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Ypsilanti good for families?
Schools beat 30% of cities, crime safety beats 42%, and childcare runs $1,094 a month.
Is Ypsilanti good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 49% of cities, though advertised internet speeds beat only 48% of cities. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Ypsilanti with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Ypsilanti. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Ypsilanti 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.
Ypsilanti detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Ypsilanti: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Ypsilanti: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Ypsilanti: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Ypsilanti: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Ypsilanti 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.