South Lyon, Michigan
Area Profile
11,950 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for South Lyon, in Oakland County.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 14 sourcesUnemployment is 4.8% and median household income $92,467, putting employment conditions in the middle range of cities measured. The unemployment rate is published for Oakland County, MI, which contains South Lyon, rather than for South Lyon alone.
Public schools test above most of the state: 58% of students met the mathematics standard, placing the area in the top 18% of published profiles for schools.
Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most cities measured: rent takes 28% of renter income and the median home is 2.7 times what its owners earn.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment across Oakland County, MI, which contains South Lyon, is 4.8% — higher than in all but 32% of the 4,226 measured US cities.
Employment across Oakland County, MI, which contains South Lyon, fell 0.5% over the past year, to 656,029 employed residents.
47% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 87% of measured US cities.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$13,2492024 ACS 5-Year | $92,467 | Top 23%of 29,223 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$3,6382024 ACS 5-Year | $50,721 | Top 17%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 4.3% | Top 20%of 31,773 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±2.8 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 33.8 min | Bottom 20%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±6%2024 ACS 5-Year | 47.2% | Top 13%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±5%2024 ACS 5-Year | 77.0% | 49th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentOakland County, MI’s figureJuly 2026 | 656,029 | Top 11%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)Oakland County, MI’s figureJuly 2026 | −2.7% | Bottom 17%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)Oakland County, MI’s figureJuly 2026 | −0.5% | Top 46%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceOakland County, MI’s figureJuly 2026 | 688,763 | 89th percentileof 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 84.7% | Top 25%of 31,513 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Mean annual wageDetroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metro Area’s figure2025 OEWS | $69,210 | Top 48%of 3,729 | 2025 OEWS |
| Median annual wageDetroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metro Area’s figure2025 OEWS | $52,080 | Top 44%of 3,729 | 2025 OEWS |
| Public transit to work ±0.3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.0% | 1st percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)Oakland County, MI’s figureJuly 2026 | +0.3% | Bottom 29%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateOakland County, MI’s figureJuly 2026 | 4.8% | Bottom 32%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 16.2% | 79th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Median household income, successive ACS releases
Largest occupations — Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
| Occupation | People employed | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Miscellaneous Assemblers and Fabricators | 55,100 | $49,240 |
| Retail Salespersons | 48,610 | $35,130 |
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | 46,480 | $35,120 |
| Registered Nurses | 44,310 | $97,280 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 42,430 | $29,590 |
| Cashiers | 37,910 | $30,090 |
Searches the 40 largest occupations here that have a published wage.
Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Oakland County, MI, which contains this city.
58% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 67% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 18.1 students for every full-time teacher across 10 public schools, more than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Lyon High School | South Lyon Community Schools | 1,245 | 17.3 | 72% | 79% |
| South Lyon East High School | South Lyon Community Schools | 1,174 | 19.9 | 59% | 75% |
| Millennium Middle School | South Lyon Community Schools | 1,049 | 20.6 | 64% | 67% |
| Centennial Middle School | South Lyon Community Schools | 898 | 19.1 | 55% | 60% |
| William A Pearson Elementary | South Lyon Community Schools | 576 | 18.0 | 55% | 63% |
| Sharon J Hardy Elementary School | South Lyon Community Schools | 570 | 14.6 | 61% | 64% |
| Kent Lake Elementary School | South Lyon Community Schools | 518 | 17.3 | 50% | 55% |
| Frank E Bartlett School | South Lyon Community Schools | 483 | 17.9 | 44% | 60% |
| William A Brummer Elementary School | South Lyon Community Schools | 469 | 17.4 | 54% | 65% |
| Sayre Elementary School | South Lyon Community Schools | 450 | 16.7 | 43% | 51% |
| Special Education | South Lyon Community Schools | 1 | — | — | — |
15.9% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against Michigan’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →Prices for everything a household buys run about 2% below the national average — the Bureau of Economic Analysis index reads 98.2, against 100 for the nation. Nationally, housing drives most of the spread between places in this index; other goods vary far less.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $4,044 a year in real estate taxes, about 1.37% of the median home value.
HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $1,450, some 11% above the $1,310 tenants already here pay.
At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $1,450 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $58,000 a year, about 63% of the median household income here of $92,467.
The typical renter household here spends 28% of its income on rent, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $1,310 a month.
A median home at $294,600 costs 2.7 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $110,272, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
Prices here run about 2% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.
Published for the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metro Area as a whole. Prices are regional — people shop, commute and rent across a metropolitan area rather than within a city boundary — so this describes the cost of living around this place better than a figure drawn to its own limits would.
The figures above are measured against South Lyon’s median household income of $92,467, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of living indexthe Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI Metro Area’s figure2023 | 98.2 | Top 37%of 3,700 | 2023 |
| Home price to income ±0.32024 ACS 5-Year | 2.7 | Bottom 44%of 26,815 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 81.3% | 61st percentileof 31,717 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±2702024 ACS 5-Year | 5,155 | 89th percentileof 32,177 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroomFY2026 | $1,190 | Top 36%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroomFY2026 | $1,840 | Top 36%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroomFY2026 | $1,450 | Top 37%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$642024 ACS 5-Year | $1,310 | Bottom 27%of 23,120 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$18,6872024 ACS 5-Year | $294,600 | 71st percentileof 29,111 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$3642024 ACS 5-Year | $4,044 | 83rd percentileof 26,440 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$12,4982024 ACS 5-Year | $110,272 | Top 20%of 27,548 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.15%2024 ACS 5-Year | 1.37% | 72nd percentileof 20,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 27.5% | Top 45%of 22,950 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±182024 ACS 5-Year | 0 | 1st percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.0% | 1st percentileof 31,895 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 3.5% | 30th percentileof 31,769 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±1202024 ACS 5-Year | 179 | 76th percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures and the cost-of-living index.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.
Population has grown 4% since 2020, reaching 12,219 in 2024.
Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before: 26 units authorized in 2025, against 14 the year before.
65% of the 23 units permitted over the past twelve months are in buildings of five or more homes, so new supply is concentrated in apartments and condominiums rather than detached houses.
At 1.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.
Population, annual estimates
Housing units permitted per year
Weather & climate
5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 86°F and January a low of 20°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 30.2 inches.
Air quality measures a median index of 45, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index2024 calendar year | 70 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 30.2" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 20°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 86°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 5 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 1002024 calendar year | 1 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index2024 calendar year | 45 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 48°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Air quality
A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. Air quality is measured by EPA monitors and published by county only where a monitor sits; a county without one shows nothing rather than an estimate, and a county reading is still the county’s. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and cold wave, with inland flooding alone responsible for 48% of it. Inland flooding and cold wave are independently rated low or minimal nationally, so this describes how the loss is composed, not how large those hazards are.
Overall hazard risk is lower than 97% of measured US cities.
Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, inland flooding, hail, lightning, winter weather, earthquake, landslide, wildfire, hurricane, drought, avalanche, coastal flooding, tsunami, volcanic activity.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.
South Lyon's police department reported 49 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, lower than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 348.
Oakland County records 3.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at 7.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 10.5 per 100,000 residents in Oakland County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Offenses are reported to the FBI by South Lyon’s own police department and shown only where it reported every month of the year; a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime is what police recorded, which is not the same as what happened. Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe the county around South Lyon (Oakland County) rather than South Lyon itself. Neither is part of the Area Score. How to read crime rates and death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. The cost-of-living index above is a price level for all consumption, not a household budget, and it excludes taxes. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
6 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Detroit Metro Wayne County at 23 miles.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 94.1% | Top 29%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 23 mi | Bottom 38%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 6 | Top 27%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 5.0% | Top 37%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit Metro Wayne County | DTW | 23 mi | 12,003 ft |
| Capital Region Intl | LAN | 52 mi | 8,506 ft |
| Eugene F Kranz Toledo Express | TOL | 61 mi | 10,600 ft |
Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.
Customize your score
What matters to you?
Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.
Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.
Other cities in Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, MI
Same metropolitan area, measured the same way| City | County | Population | Area Score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit | Wayne County | 638,530 | 47 | Detroit vs South Lyon |
| Warren | Macomb County | 137,928 | 52 | Warren vs South Lyon |
| Sterling Heights | Macomb County | 133,573 | 61 | Sterling Heights vs South Lyon |
| Dearborn | Wayne County | 107,423 | 51 | |
| Livonia | Wayne County | 93,851 | 68 | |
| Troy | Oakland County | 87,898 | 72 | |
| Westland | Wayne County | 83,633 | 51 | |
| Farmington Hills | Oakland County | 83,515 | 65 | |
| Rochester Hills | Oakland County | 77,089 | 69 | |
| Southfield | Oakland County | 76,236 | 56 | |
| Novi | Oakland County | 66,717 | 72 | |
| Pontiac | Oakland County | 62,104 | 53 |
Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.
Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
Put South Lyon side by side with a similar place.
Moving to South Lyon from somewhere else?
You get the difference in prices, rent and weather, and the income that would keep pace.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Safety | Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency | 2025 calendar year |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Housing | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | 2025 OEWS |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026 |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology, or every source with how often each updates.
ZIP codes in South Lyon
1 ZIP areaEvery ZIP area in South Lyon with census figures of its own, largest first.
| ZIP | Population | Median household income | Median home value | Area Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 48178 | 37,789 | $131,558 | $410,500 | 70 |