Best PlacesAppleton, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Appleton metro, 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.
Photo by Jasperthedog28, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Appleton ranks 11th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on few empty homes and cheap car insurance. The weaker spots are property taxes, noise, and tree cover.
The best neighborhoods in the Appleton metro
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.
The best areas in Appleton
The towns and districts of the Appleton metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Menasha
Crime runs lower, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Seymour
More adults hold degrees and more households have young kids.
Kaukauna
Biking is better and prices have run up less.
Hortonville, Greenville & Shiocton
It is quieter, though streets are more car-dependent.
Kimberly & Little Chute
Transit reaches more jobs and advertised internet is faster.
Downtown Appleton
Schools score lower.
Oneida
Scores close to Downtown Appleton, except that homes cost more here.
Chilton, New Holstein & Brillion
More homes sit empty.
Scores across Appleton run from about the 22nd to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Appleton's strengths and weaknesses
Appleton ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Few empty homes is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Cheap car insurance and health care access follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, noise, and tree cover hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Appleton ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 97% of metro areas
Where Appleton ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 20% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 24% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 28% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,055 a month, better than only 31% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 39% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Appleton
A household needs to earn about $77,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Appleton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $91,521, 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 Appleton's effective rate of 1.36%, 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 Appleton
Appleton's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Appleton.
Who works in Appleton, and how
Work in Appleton centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Appleton
Appleton has more parkland per resident than 89% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Appleton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Appleton growing, and who is moving in?
Appleton has grown about 8% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Oshkosh, WI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Appleton go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Appleton, month by month
Appleton sees roughly 181 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 27, with lows near 16. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 27° | 21° | 16° |
| April | 54° | 44° | 36° |
| July | 81° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 59° | 50° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Appleton
The nearest airport, Appleton International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 95 miles away.
The best schools in and around Appleton
Schools across Appleton average a C+, better than 45% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Sunrise ElementaryA · 68% proficient
- Woodland SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Classical SchoolA · 67% proficient
Top middle schools
- Odyssey-magellanA+ · 94% proficient
- Woodland IntermediateA+ · 77% proficient
- Gerritts MiddleA · 60% proficient
Top high schools
- Tesla Engineering Charter SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Neenah HighB · 48% proficient
- Renaissance SchoolB · 47% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Appleton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Appleton 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 Appleton against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Appleton suits
Families
Schools land around the 45th percentile and crime safety beats 88%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 86% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 12% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 95% of metro areas and health care access beats 98%.
Common questions about living in Appleton
Is Appleton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Appleton ranks 11th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on few empty homes, cheap car insurance, and health care access, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Appleton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $274,879. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $91,521 median income, cost of living beats 86% of metro areas.
Is Appleton safe?
Yes, Appleton is safer than 88% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $251 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Appleton?
July highs average about 81 degrees, and January highs near 27 with lows near 16. That works out to about 181 pleasant days a year, more than 95% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Appleton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Menasha, Seymour, and Kaukauna. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Appleton good for families?
Schools beat 45% of metro areas, crime safety beats 88%, and childcare runs $1,055 a month.
Is Appleton good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 86% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 92% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Appleton with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Appleton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Appleton 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.
Appleton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Appleton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Appleton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Appleton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Appleton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Appleton 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.