Best Places54104, WI Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 54104, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

54104 ranks 25,429th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.

#25,429
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 54104

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 54104 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.

54104's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%Low disaster risk
Top 10%Tree cover
Top 10%Cheap car insurance
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare 54104 with other zip codes.

Where 54104 ranks high

  • Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • Tree shadeBetter than 94% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 92% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 90% of zip codes
  • Voter turnoutBetter than 90% of zip codes

Where 54104 ranks low

  • Low vacancyBetter than only 8% of zip codes
  • BikingBetter than only 8% of zip codes
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 9% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 10% of zip codes
  • Internet speedBetter than only 10% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 54104

A household needs to earn about $52,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 54104 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $52,020, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$52,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,216
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $195,666 home
Median rent
$565
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$998
Property tax$153
Homeowners insurance$65

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 54104's effective rate of 0.94%, 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 54104

54104 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
62
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
44%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.1
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1810%
18 to 349%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6420%
65 and older44%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 54104.


Who works in 54104, and how

Work in 54104 centers on manufacturing and hospitality & food. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
10%
below the national average
Unemployment
10.2%
above the national average
Job growth
+1.9%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing15%
Hospitality & food13%
Retail trade10%
Health care & social10%
Transportation & warehousing8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 87%
  • Work from home 10%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in 54104

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across 54104.


What the weather is like in 54104, month by month

54104 sees roughly 134 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 11. 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
January26°18°11°
April52°40°29°
July82°69°57°
October57°47°37°

Flying in and out of 54104

The nearest airport, Ford, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 170 miles away.

Nearest airport
IMT
Ford, about 30 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
337th-busiest in the US, 2 nonstop destinations
Average drive
43 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 54104

Schools across 54104 average a C−, better than 26% 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 54104 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


54104 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 54104 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 54104

Is 54104 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 54104 ranks 25,429th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on low disaster risk, tree cover, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on empty homes and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 54104 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $195,666. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $52,020 median income, cost of living beats 13% of zip codes.

Is 54104 safe?

54104 is safer than 52% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $316 per resident a year.


Compare 54104 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 54104. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 54104 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.

54104 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 54104: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 54104: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 54104: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 54104: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

54104 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.