Wheeler TownshipMI
A town of 2,569, settled in 1869.
Is Wheeler Township a good place to live?
Wheeler Township gives you more for your money than most places: a typical home costs about $190K, 3 years of the Alma area’s $64K median household income. It grades B overall, ranked 296th of 697 in Michigan. Wheeler Township’s median rent is $694 a month, against $1,047 a month in Michigan’s towns and $1,185 a month across U.S. towns.
What makes Wheeler Township stand out
Where Wheeler Township beats most towns.
How Wheeler Township grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Michigan), ordered by how far Wheeler Township is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Wheeler Township: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Wheeler Township, 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.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Wheeler Township.
Wheeler Township is healthier than towns with similar incomes and has home values lagging Michigan’s, but it has little public open land.
For cost of living, Wheeler Township earns an A
At about $190K, home values are up 8% in five years, against a rise of 24% across Michigan.
The typical Wheeler Township home is worth about $190,000, up 4.3% in a year, 28% below the Michigan typical home.
Typical home value
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Public schools in Wheeler Township beat 54% of Michigan districts
Its public schools are run by the Breckenridge Community Schools. Its two schools are below. The largest public high school is Breckenridge MiddleHigh School, with 310 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Breckenridge Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 324 | B− |
| Breckenridge MiddleHigh SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 6–12 | Grades 6–12 | 310 | C+ |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MI on state tests and graduation
Wheeler Township has four seasons and pleasant summers
Wheeler Township has chilly, snowy winters and pleasant summers. July afternoons reach 83°, January nights drop to 16° and about 39 inches of snow falls in a winter.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Wheeler Township has 0.8 jobs for every working resident, so most commute out
Most working residents leave Wheeler Township for work: only 12% work in town. Wheeler Township’s median household income is $61,000. The top destinations are Midland (8%), Alma (8%) and St.
| Wheeler Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $61,000 | $77,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 8.9% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 12% | 5.9% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 25 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2021 · ACS
Health in Wheeler Township trails 61% of U.S. towns
Against the 9,212 U.S. towns with household incomes like Wheeler Township’s, it is healthier than 60%, so its C+ isn’t only a matter of income.
Wheeler Township beats the Michigan average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 5. 27% of adults have been diagnosed with depression in Wheeler Township.
| Wheeler Township | Michigan towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depression (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 27% | 23% |
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 15% | 14% | 14% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 16% | 15% | 14% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 34% | 36% |
| What stands out | Wheeler Township | MI |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 12.8% | 10.2% |
| More adults with COPD | 9.5% | 8.1% |
| More adults with heart disease | 7.9% | 7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Wheeler Township faces a low natural-hazard risk, led by inland flooding
Expected storm and flood damage is lower than in 61% of U.S. communities.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Conserved land covers 0.3% of Wheeler Township
Just 65 of its 22,816 acres are conserved, so there is little public open land in Wheeler Township itself; its outdoors grade is C−.
0.3 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Jaycee & Hoffmeyer Memorial Park | — | 4 |
| 2. Wheeler Township Park | — | 3 |
| 3. Birch Street Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
USS Edson and 10 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Wheeler Township. Close and well known come first.
31 mi MuseumUSS Edson
16 mi GardenDow Gardens
14 mi GardenChippewa Nature Center
31 mi MuseumSaginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum24 mi Zoo & aquariumChildren's Zoo at Celebration Square
24 mi TheatreTemple TheatrePhoto credits
USS Edson: U.S. Navy, Public domain · Dow Gardens: Chris.Schiemann, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Chippewa Nature Center: Christian Collins, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Saginaw Valley Naval Ship Museum: John McCullough, CC BY-SA 2.5 · Temple Theatre: Ian Poellet, CC BY-SA 4.0
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Everything we know about Wheeler Township
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Wheeler Township
About 4 of every 100 Wheeler Township residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Michigan.
About Wheeler Township
Civil township in Michigan, United States
Wheeler Township is a civil township of Gratiot County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the township population was 1,374. Inside the township is the Village of Breckenridge.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 36 sq mi
- Elevation
- 712 ft
Wheeler Township’s neighbors
3 towns share a border with Wheeler Township.
| Town | MI rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wheeler Township | #296 | B | A | — | B− | C+ |
| Bethany Township | — | — | A− | — | B− | C− |
| Porter Township | — | — | B | — | B− | B− |
| Lafayette Township | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Bethany Township and Porter Township have fewer than 2,500 residents, so they get subject grades but no overall grade. Wheeler Township, Bethany Township and Porter Township report no FBI crime data of their own. Lafayette Township isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Wheeler Township with a neighbor →
Questions about Wheeler Township
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Wheeler Township, MI a good place to live?
By most measures, yes. Wheeler Township grades B overall, better than 62% of U.S. towns and #296 of 697 in Michigan. It grades C+ for health and B− for schools.
Is Wheeler Township, MI expensive?
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A.