Best Places54120, WI Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood inside ZIP code 54120, 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

54120 ranks 25,835th of 33,110 U.S. zip codes on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and biking ranks lowest.

#25,835
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 54120

Map of the best neighborhoods in the 54120 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.

54120's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Tree cover
Top 5%Low disaster risk
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 54120 with other zip codes.

Where 54120 ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 98% of zip codes
  • Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of zip codes
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of zip codes
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of zip codes
  • Nice weatherabout 146 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of zip codes

Where 54120 ranks low

  • BikingBetter than only 2% of zip codes
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 4% of zip codes
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 5% of zip codes
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of zip codes
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 6% of zip codes

What it costs to buy a home in 54120

A household needs to earn about $41,000 a year to comfortably buy the median 54120 home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $52,064, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$41,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$963
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $151,011 home
Median rent
$600
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$770
Property tax$143
Homeowners insurance$50

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 54120's effective rate of 1.13%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. 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 54120

54120 runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
60
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
44%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.3
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1814%
18 to 3411%
35 to 4914%
50 to 6417%
65 and older44%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for 54120.


Who works in 54120, and how

Work in 54120 centers on construction and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
16%
about the national average
Unemployment
1.1%
below the national average
Job growth
+9.3%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Construction19%
Manufacturing14%
Retail trade11%
Health care & social10%
Finance & insurance9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 80%
  • Work from home 16%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in 54120

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across 54120.


What the weather is like in 54120, month by month

54120 sees roughly 146 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 54120

The nearest airport, Ford, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 195 miles away.

Nearest airport
IMT
Ford, about 16 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
337th-busiest in the US, 2 nonstop destinations
Average drive
24 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around 54120

Schools across 54120 average a C−, better than 18% 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 54120 school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


54120 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 54120 against the other 33,109 zip codes.


Common questions about living in 54120

Is 54120 a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, 54120 ranks 25,835th of 33,110 zip codes. It scores highest on tree cover, low disaster risk, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on biking and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is 54120 expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $151,011. The overall cost of living runs about 6% above the national average. Set against a $52,064 median income, cost of living beats 6% of zip codes.

Is 54120 safe?

Yes, 54120 is safer than 66% of zip codes. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $271 per resident a year.


Compare 54120 with other zip codes


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to 54120. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in 54120 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.

54120 detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for 54120: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in 54120: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of 54120: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in 54120: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

54120 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.