Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Traverse City grades B overall, 305th of 697 graded towns in Michigan. Natural-hazard risk is low. Its schools rank ahead of 80% of Michigan towns. The catch is cost: homes are expensive, about $444K for a typical one and 5.5 times the Traverse City metro’s $81K median household income. 45% of working residents work locally in Traverse City, where Michigan’s towns sit at 5.9% and U.S. towns at 8%. Few places in the country are easier to get around without a car. Traverse City is home to Northwestern Michigan College.
Where Traverse City beats most towns.
Census counts: 1,897 in 1880, 15,678 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1890 and 2 maps from 1957 on.
7 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Traverse City is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Traverse City, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Sep 12, 2025.
Ordered by what stands out in Traverse City.
Traverse City draws workers from Garfield Township and beyond and gets more snow than nearly all U.S. towns, but it has property taxes 1.6 times the Michigan norm.
12 miles of trail in 32 parks and preserves. Traverse City’s trail density is 1.4 miles per square mile. The biggest park or preserve is Grand Traverse Commons Natural Area, at 127 acres.
| Traverse City | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 1.4 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 3% | 4.4% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Grand Traverse County Civic Center | 1.2 mi | 44 |
| 2. Grand Traverse Commons Natural Area | 0.8 mi | 127 |
| 3. Dr. James Decker Munson Arboretum | 0.6 mi | 13 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by the Traverse City Area Public Schools. Three of its 13 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Central High School, with 1,326 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Central Grade SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–7 | Grades PK–7 | 510 | A |
| Central High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 8–12 | Grades 8–12 | 1,326 | A |
| Willow Hill Elementary SchoolTop results in townGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 429 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
The median property tax bill is $4,671, against $2,904 across Michigan, another input to its cost-of-living grade.
64% of Traverse City households own their home. The typical Traverse City home is worth about $444,000, up 2.1% in a year, 68% above the Michigan typical home.
| Traverse City | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 64% | 84% | 73% |
| Median rent | $995 a month | $1,047 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
24,319 jobs are based in Traverse City, 4 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in. The average commute takes 17.2 minutes, against 24.2 across Michigan.
The average trip to work in Traverse City is 17 minutes. Jobs based in Traverse City grew to 24,319 in 2021, 5,149 more than in 2011. 19% of workers work from home in Traverse City.
| Traverse City | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average trip to work | 17 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Work from home | 19% | 10% | 11% |
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Among 701 Michigan towns, just 5 have a lower FEMA risk score than Traverse City. Since 1981, 15 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Traverse City.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Traverse City beats the Michigan average on 8 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 1.
| Traverse City | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 30% | 34% | 36% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 15% | 14% |
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 26% | 27% | 23% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 31% | 32% | 33% |
| What stands out | Traverse City | MI |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 10.8% | 15.4% |
| Fewer adults facing housing insecurity | 8.6% | 11.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 10.5% | 8.9% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
The Traverse City Munson weather station records that 101 inches of snow fall in a normal winter, more than in 97% of U.S. towns.
Traverse City has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 79° and January nights drop to 17°.
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
1 within 15 miles of the center of Traverse City
About 6 of every 100 Traverse City residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Michigan.
7 places in Traverse City on the National Register of Historic Places.
30 notable people were born in Traverse City.
City in Michigan
Traverse City ( TRAV-ərss) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although it partly extends into Leelanau County. The city's population was 15,678 at the 2020 census, while the four-county Traverse City metropolitan area had 153,448 residents. Traverse City is the largest city in Northern Michigan. Traverse City is at the head of the East and West arms of Grand Traverse Bay, a 32-mile-long (51 km) bay of Lake Michigan. Grand Traverse Bay is divided into arms by the 18-mile-long (29 km) Old Mission Peninsula, which is attached at its base to Traverse City. The city borders four townships–East Bay, Elmwood, Garfield, and Peninsula–all of whic…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
5 towns share a border with Traverse City.
All 4 graded towns on its borders grade higher than its B; Garfield Township (B+) is closest.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traverse City | #305 | B | C− | C+ | A− | B+ |
| Garfield Township | #258 | B+ | C− | — | A− | B+ |
| Peninsula Township | #190 | A− | D | — | A− | B+ |
| East Bay Township | #137 | A− | C+ | — | A− | A− |
| Elmwood Township | #224 | B+ | C | — | A− | B+ |
| Greilickville | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Garfield Township, Peninsula Township, East Bay Township and Elmwood Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Greilickville isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Traverse City with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
For most people who can afford it, yes. Traverse City grades B overall, better than 61% of U.S. towns and #305 of 697 in Michigan. It grades B+ for health, C+ for safety and A− for schools. Cost of living is its weak spot, with a C−.
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C−.
30 notable people were born here, including Jeremy Davies and Barry Watson.
