Best PlacesAlmena, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Almena, 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.
Almena ranks 24,288th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Empty homes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on cheap car insurance.
The best neighborhoods in Almena
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.
Almena's strengths and weaknesses
Where Almena ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 89% of towns
- BikingBetter than 83% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 80% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 79% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 79% of towns
Where Almena ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 11% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 24% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 25% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 27% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Almena
A household needs to earn about $66,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Almena home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,195, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
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 Almena's effective rate of 1.11%, 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.
Who lives in Almena
Almena runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Almena.
Who works in Almena, and how
Work in Almena centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Almena
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Almena.
What the weather is like in Almena, month by month
Almena sees roughly 91 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 16° | 9° |
| April | 52° | 41° | 33° |
| July | 79° | 69° | 59° |
| October | 56° | 46° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Almena
The nearest airport, Chippewa Valley Regional, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 69 miles away.
The best schools in and around Almena
Schools across Almena average a C, better than 32% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Hilltop ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
- Turtle Lake ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
- Cumberland ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Rice Lake MiddleB · 47% proficient
- Turtle Lake MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
- Cumberland MiddleC+ · 36% proficient
Top high schools
- Cumberland HighC− · 28% proficient
- Rice Lake HighC− · 27% proficient
- Barron HighD · 22% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Almena school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Almena 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 Almena against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Almena
Is Almena a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Almena ranks 24,288th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, biking, and walkability, and lowest on empty homes and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Almena expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $241,001. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $73,195 median income, cost of living beats 41% of towns.
Is Almena safe?
Yes, Almena is safer than 74% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $239 per resident a year.
Compare Almena with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Almena. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Almena 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.
Almena detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Almena: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Almena: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Almena: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Almena: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Almena detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- 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.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.