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:
- Huntington Woods (Photos)
- Birmingham (Photos)
- Beverly Hills (Photos)
- Berkley (Photos)
- Plymouth (Photos)
- Grosse Pointe Woods (Photos)
- Grosse Pointe (Photos)
- Grosse Pointe Farms (Photos)
- Grosse Pointe Park (Photos)
- 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
Population: 6,330
Median Income: $121,528
Median Home Price: $298,800
Huntington Woods is located 7 miles north of Detroit.
2. Birmingham
Population: 20,653
Median Income: $112,545
Median Home Price: $439,000
Birmingham is located 12 miles north of Detroit.
3. Beverly Hills
Population: 10,450
Median Income: $108,214
Median Home Price: $320,200
Beverly Hills is located 11 miles north of Detroit.
4. Berkley
Population: 15,239
Median Income: $74,172
Median Home Price: $159,400
Berkley is located 9 miles north of Detroit.
5. Plymouth
Population: 8,956
Median Income: $78,254
Median Home Price: $240,200
Plymouth is located 18 miles west of Detroit.
6. Grosse Pointe Woods
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
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
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
Population: 11,276
Median Income: $101,484
Median Home Price: $313,300
Grosse Pointe Park is located 9 miles east of Detroit.
10. Northville
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:
- Highland Park
- River Rouge
- Hamtramck
For more Michigan reading, check out:
Detailed List Of The Best Suburbs In Michigan
City | Rank |
---|---|
Huntington Woods | 1 |
Birmingham | 2 |
Beverly Hills | 3 |
Berkley | 4 |
Plymouth | 5 |
Grosse Pointe Woods | 6 |
Grosse Pointe | 7 |
Grosse Pointe Farms | 8 |
Grosse Pointe Park | 9 |
Northville | 10 |
Royal Oak | 11 |
Farmington | 12 |
Rochester | 13 |
Clawson | 14 |
Rochester Hills | 15 |
Novi | 16 |
Allen Park | 17 |
Farmington Hills | 18 |
South Lyon | 19 |
Livonia | 20 |
Milford | 21 |
Troy | 22 |
New Baltimore | 23 |
Trenton | 24 |
Woodhaven | 25 |
Milan | 26 |
Walled Lake | 27 |
St. Clair Shores | 28 |
Sterling Heights | 29 |
Wixom | 30 |
Tecumseh | 31 |
Ferndale | 32 |
Riverview | 33 |
Wyandotte | 34 |
Flat Rock | 35 |
Fraser | 36 |
Southgate | 37 |
Monroe | 38 |
Oak Park | 39 |
Auburn Hills | 40 |
Southfield | 41 |
Madison Heights | 42 |
Dearborn Heights | 43 |
Westland | 44 |
Dearborn | 45 |
Hazel Park | 46 |
Ypsilanti | 47 |
Adrian | 48 |
Center Line | 49 |
Eastpointe | 50 |
Warren | 51 |
Melvindale | 52 |
Lincoln Park | 53 |
Taylor | 54 |
Roseville | 55 |
Wayne | 56 |
Mount Clemens | 57 |
Harper Woods | 58 |
Romulus | 59 |
Pontiac | 60 |
Ecorse | 61 |
Inkster | 62 |
Hamtramck | 63 |
River Rouge | 64 |
Highland Park | 65 |