Best Places53086, WI Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 53086, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

53086 ranks 4,062nd of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on civic engagement by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.

#4,062
of 33,110 zip codes
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 33,110 zip codes
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in 53086

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 53086 area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

53086's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Civic engagement
Top 5%Cheap car insurance
Top 5%Heat safety
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 53086 with other zip codes.

Where 53086 ranks high

  • Voter turnoutBetter than 99% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 97% of zip codes
  • Heat safetyBetter than 95% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than 93% of zip codes

Where 53086 ranks low

  • QuietBetter than only 11% of zip codes
  • Short commute29.9 minutes each way, better than only 29% of zip codes
  • Cheap childcare$1,055 a month, better than only 29% of zip codes
  • Local economyBetter than only 30% of zip codes
  • TransitBetter than only 35% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 53086

A household needs to earn about $106,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 53086 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $99,674; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.

Income to buy the median home
$106,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,462
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $393,026 home
Median rent
$1,121
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$2,004
Property tax$327
Homeowners insurance$131

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses 53086's effective rate of 1.00%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in 53086

53086 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
44
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
21%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3416%
35 to 4919%
50 to 6421%
65 and older21%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 53086.


Who works in 53086, and how

Work in 53086 centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
14%
about the national average
Unemployment
5.1%
about the national average
Job growth
+0.0%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing17%
Health care & social14%
Retail trade13%
Professional & technical9%
Construction8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 84%
  • Work from home 14%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in 53086

53086 has more parkland per resident than 77% of zip codes. That concentrates in some parts of 53086 and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
35
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 37.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 55% of zip codes
Parkland
51 acres
about 5.4 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 77% of zip codes

What the weather is like in 53086, month by month

53086 sees roughly 83 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January29°22°17°
April55°43°35°
July81°70°61°
October59°49°42°

Flying in and out of 53086

General Mitchell International sits about 33 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.9 million passengers in 2025, with 66 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
MKE
General Mitchell International, about 33 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
58th-busiest in the US, 66 nonstop destinations
Average drive
47 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 53086

Schools across 53086 average an A−, better than 82% of zip codes.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every 53086 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


53086 measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare 53086 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 53086

Is 53086 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 53086 ranks 4,062nd of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on civic engagement, cheap car insurance, and heat safety, and lowest on noise and long commutes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 53086 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $393,026. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $99,674 median income, cost of living beats 81% of zip codes.

Is 53086 safe?

Yes, 53086 is safer than 93% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $178 per resident a year.


Compare 53086 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 53086. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 53086 represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

53086 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 53086: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 53086: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 53086: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 53086: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

53086 detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.