These Are The 10 Best Suburbs In Michigan For 2018


We used science and data to determine the best suburbs in Michigan for you to live.

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Are you sick of being a city slicker?

Do you long for life in suburban Michigan? Where you can drive your overly-large vehicle to the store for groceries, and schlep the kids around to practices and appointments without worrying about a parking space?

We do too.

Public transportation is…icky at times. When you have to call an Uber to get to urgent care on a Friday night, that gets old after a while.

So, the question is, if you wanted to move out to the suburbs of Lansing, where would you go? And how would you decide on the ranking factors to help you pick which Michigan suburb was best?

No worries. We got it all figured out here.

These are the 10 best suburbs in the Wolverine State:

  1. Huntington Woods (Photos)
  2. Birmingham (Photos)
  3. Beverly Hills (Photos)
  4. Berkley (Photos)
  5. Plymouth (Photos)
  6. Grosse Pointe Woods (Photos)
  7. Grosse Pointe (Photos)
  8. Grosse Pointe Farms (Photos)
  9. Grosse Pointe Park (Photos)
  10. Northville (Photos)

Huntington Woods is the place to be when it comes to being a soccer mom in suburban Michigan.

So if you’re thinking of packing up your mini van and making a move to a quiet place to live in Michigan, we’ve got you covered.

Keep on reading for a detailed methodology. Or, check out the best places to live in Michigan and the best places to raise a family in Michigan.

How do you determine which suburb is the best in Michigan anyways?

To give you the best suburbs in Michigan, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what’s a “best city” and what isn’t.

So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.

How we crunched the suburb numbers for the Wolverine State

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of Michigan, we looked at every town between 5,000 and 200,000 residents, and within 30 miles of a city that’s over 200,000 people (In other words, suburbs).

We paid particular attention to:

  • Median Home Values
  • Median Income
  • Population Density (Higher is Better)
  • Unemployment Rates
  • Commute Time
  • Education Levels
  • Health Insurance Coverage
  • Poverty Rates

We ranked each suburb in Michigan across a number of criteria from one to 65, with one being the best.

We then took the average rank across all criteria, with the town posting the lowest overall score being crowned the winner of the title “Best Suburb To Live In Michigan”.

The result is some of the safest, quiet, and awesome places to live in Michigan

Read on to see why Huntington Woods is the ‘burb with the most, while Highland Park is probably not the best place to live in Michigan.

1. Huntington Woods

Huntington Woods, Mi

Population: 6,330
Median Income: $121,528
Median Home Price: $298,800
Huntington Woods is located 7 miles north of Detroit.

2. Birmingham

Birmingham, Mi

Population: 20,653
Median Income: $112,545
Median Home Price: $439,000
Birmingham is located 12 miles north of Detroit.

3. Beverly Hills

Beverly Hills, Mi

Population: 10,450
Median Income: $108,214
Median Home Price: $320,200
Beverly Hills is located 11 miles north of Detroit.

4. Berkley

Berkley, Mi

Population: 15,239
Median Income: $74,172
Median Home Price: $159,400
Berkley is located 9 miles north of Detroit.

5. Plymouth

Plymouth, Mi

Population: 8,956
Median Income: $78,254
Median Home Price: $240,200
Plymouth is located 18 miles west of Detroit.

6. Grosse Pointe Woods

Grosse Pointe Woods, Mi

Population: 15,785
Median Income: $93,404
Median Home Price: $197,600
Grosse Pointe Woods is located 11 miles east of Detroit.

7. Grosse Pointe

Grosse Pointe, Mi

Population: 5,256
Median Income: $92,500
Median Home Price: $288,800
Grosse Pointe is located 10 miles east of Detroit.

8. Grosse Pointe Farms

Grosse Pointe Farms, Mi

Population: 9,265
Median Income: $119,500
Median Home Price: $287,100
Grosse Pointe Farms is located 10 miles east of Detroit.

9. Grosse Pointe Park

Grosse Pointe Park, Mi

Population: 11,276
Median Income: $101,484
Median Home Price: $313,300
Grosse Pointe Park is located 9 miles east of Detroit.

10. Northville

Northville, Mi

Population: 5,986
Median Income: $99,052
Median Home Price: $298,900
Northville is located 20 miles west of Detroit.

There You Have It – The Best Suburbs In Michigan

Here’s a look at the worst suburbs in Michigan according to the data:

  1. Highland Park
  2. River Rouge
  3. Hamtramck

For more Michigan reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Best Suburbs In Michigan

City Rank Population Median Income Median Home Price
Huntington Woods 1 6,330 $121,528 $298,800
Birmingham 2 20,653 $112,545 $439,000
Beverly Hills 3 10,450 $108,214 $320,200
Berkley 4 15,239 $74,172 $159,400
Plymouth 5 8,956 $78,254 $240,200
Grosse Pointe Woods 6 15,785 $93,404 $197,600
Grosse Pointe 7 5,256 $92,500 $288,800
Grosse Pointe Farms 8 9,265 $119,500 $287,100
Grosse Pointe Park 9 11,276 $101,484 $313,300
Northville 10 5,986 $99,052 $298,900
Royal Oak 11 58,823 $68,504 $175,200
Farmington 12 10,526 $64,388 $165,800
Rochester 13 12,969 $76,616 $308,700
Clawson 14 12,008 $59,259 $139,100
Rochester Hills 15 72,987 $83,507 $247,500
Novi 16 58,233 $86,193 $266,000
Allen Park 17 27,519 $65,848 $99,800
Farmington Hills 18 81,154 $71,463 $216,200
South Lyon 19 11,672 $62,523 $161,100
Livonia 20 94,849 $71,063 $162,000
Milford 21 6,434 $71,250 $189,800
Troy 22 82,982 $88,954 $247,200
New Baltimore 23 12,266 $74,431 $191,000
Trenton 24 18,426 $56,888 $123,400
Woodhaven 25 12,590 $58,500 $135,000
Milan 26 5,917 $65,326 $137,900
Walled Lake 27 7,102 $48,324 $122,700
St. Clair Shores 28 59,916 $54,590 $102,400
Sterling Heights 29 131,674 $60,492 $154,000
Wixom 30 13,733 $47,856 $205,900
Tecumseh 31 8,370 $51,652 $112,600
Ferndale 32 20,167 $55,159 $111,000
Riverview 33 12,208 $53,502 $123,200
Wyandotte 34 25,225 $52,020 $86,200
Flat Rock 35 9,836 $57,500 $115,100
Fraser 36 14,620 $52,865 $121,000
Southgate 37 29,355 $51,138 $87,900
Monroe 38 20,243 $45,055 $105,700
Oak Park 39 29,751 $49,811 $82,500
Auburn Hills 40 22,342 $53,686 $121,000
Southfield 41 73,055 $50,371 $113,100
Madison Heights 42 30,168 $43,158 $84,000
Dearborn Heights 43 56,329 $45,929 $84,900
Westland 44 82,218 $44,808 $96,700
Dearborn 45 95,520 $48,421 $112,200
Hazel Park 46 16,587 $33,379 $51,200
Ypsilanti 47 20,577 $33,055 $130,000
Adrian 48 20,800 $33,921 $69,300
Center Line 49 8,313 $35,955 $59,800
Eastpointe 50 32,648 $44,240 $59,700
Warren 51 135,069 $44,017 $93,400
Melvindale 52 10,437 $36,870 $57,600
Lincoln Park 53 37,155 $41,406 $60,500
Taylor 54 61,716 $41,897 $75,600
Roseville 55 47,606 $42,036 $66,100
Wayne 56 17,143 $40,973 $65,900
Mount Clemens 57 16,390 $37,266 $81,600
Harper Woods 58 13,895 $49,306 $66,200
Romulus 59 23,457 $44,727 $72,800
Pontiac 60 59,920 $30,152 $53,700
Ecorse 61 9,270 $26,496 $39,600
Inkster 62 24,738 $31,285 $45,000
Hamtramck 63 21,985 $23,609 $47,300
River Rouge 64 7,609 $27,463 $35,600
Highland Park 65 10,978 $17,455 $32,600

About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.