Best PlacesBaldwin, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Baldwin, 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.
Baldwin ranks 7,570th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Baldwin
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.
Baldwin's strengths and weaknesses
Where Baldwin ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 98% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 95% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
Where Baldwin ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 13% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 20% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 21% of towns
- Cheap childcare$948 a month, better than only 30% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Baldwin
A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Baldwin home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $93,281, 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 Baldwin's effective rate of 1.18%, 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 Baldwin
Baldwin runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Baldwin.
Who works in Baldwin, and how
Work in Baldwin centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Baldwin
Baldwin has more restaurants and bars per resident than 80% of towns and more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Baldwin and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Baldwin, month by month
Baldwin sees roughly 90 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 24, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 24° | 16° | 9° |
| April | 54° | 43° | 34° |
| July | 82° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 58° | 48° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Baldwin
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 42 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 17.5 million passengers in 2025, with 195 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Baldwin
Schools across Baldwin average a B, better than 68% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Greenwood ElementaryA · 65% proficient
- Greenfield ElementaryA− · 61% proficient
- Saint Croix Central ElementaryB+ · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Saint Croix Central MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
- Viking MiddleB+ · 50% proficient
- Meyer MiddleB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Saint Croix Central HighB− · 42% proficient
- River Falls HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Baldwin-woodville HighC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Baldwin school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Baldwin 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 Baldwin against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Baldwin
Is Baldwin a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Baldwin ranks 7,570th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on fast internet, few empty homes, and heat safety, and lowest on noise and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Baldwin expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $311,744. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $93,281 median income, cost of living beats 78% of towns.
Is Baldwin safe?
Baldwin is safer than 20% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $522 per resident a year.
Compare Baldwin with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Baldwin. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Baldwin 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.
Baldwin detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Baldwin: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Baldwin: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Baldwin: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Baldwin: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Baldwin 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.