Best Places53941, WI Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 53941, 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

53941 ranks 14,025th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.

#14,025
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 53941

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 53941 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.

53941's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Cheap car insurance
Top 10%A strong job market
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 53941 with other zip codes.

Where 53941 ranks high

  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of zip codes
  • Local economyBetter than 92% of zip codes
  • Heat safetyBetter than 85% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 82% of zip codes
  • Crime safetyBetter than 81% of zip codes

Where 53941 ranks low

  • Low vacancyBetter than only 19% of zip codes
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 20% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 26% of zip codes
  • Low property taxBetter than only 28% of zip codes
  • Internet speedBetter than only 29% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 53941

A household needs to earn about $75,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 53941 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,444, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$75,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,742
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $273,464 home
Median rent
$897
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,394
Property tax$256
Homeowners insurance$91

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 53941's effective rate of 1.12%, 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 53941

53941's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
42
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
20%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1824%
18 to 3419%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6418%
65 and older20%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 53941.


Who works in 53941, and how

Work in 53941 centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
11%
below the national average
Unemployment
2.6%
below the national average
Job growth
+5.0%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing18%
Health care & social13%
Retail trade12%
Construction11%
Education8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 85%
  • Work from home 11%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in 53941

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across 53941.


What the weather is like in 53941, month by month

53941 sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 14. 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
January28°20°14°
April57°45°35°
July83°71°61°
October60°50°41°

Flying in and out of 53941

The nearest airport, Dane County Regional/Truax Field, is about 50 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 121 miles away.

Nearest airport
MSN
Dane County Regional/Truax Field, about 50 miles
Airport size
Small hub
98th-busiest in the US, 47 nonstop destinations
Average drive
71 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 53941

Schools across 53941 average a C+, better than 38% 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 53941 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


53941 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 53941 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 53941

Is 53941 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 53941 ranks 14,025th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, a strong job market, and heat safety, and lowest on empty homes and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 53941 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $273,464. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $82,444 median income, cost of living beats 54% of zip codes.

Is 53941 safe?

Yes, 53941 is safer than 81% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $240 per resident a year.


Compare 53941 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 53941. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 53941 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.

53941 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 53941: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 53941: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 53941: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 53941: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

53941 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.