Best PlacesBaraboo, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Baraboo, 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.
Baraboo ranks 10,281st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Baraboo
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.
Baraboo's strengths and weaknesses
Where Baraboo ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- BikingBetter than 90% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 86% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 82% of towns
Where Baraboo ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 20% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,054 a month, better than only 21% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 34% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 40% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Baraboo
A household needs to earn about $69,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Baraboo home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $77,158, 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 Baraboo's effective rate of 1.52%, 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 Baraboo
Baraboo 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 Baraboo.
Who works in Baraboo, and how
Work in Baraboo centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Baraboo
Baraboo has more restaurants and bars per resident than 86% of towns and more parkland per resident than 97% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Baraboo and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Baraboo, month by month
Baraboo sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 20° | 14° |
| April | 57° | 45° | 35° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Baraboo
The nearest airport, Dane County Regional/Truax Field, is about 31 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 100 miles away.
The best schools in and around Baraboo
Schools across Baraboo average a C+, better than 41% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- East ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Lake Delton ElementaryB · 50% proficient
- Merrimac CommunityB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wisconsin Dells Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Webb MiddleB− · 39% proficient
- Sauk Prairie MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Reedsburg Area HighC+ · 38% proficient
- Sauk Prairie HighC · 34% proficient
- Baraboo HighC · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Baraboo school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Baraboo 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 Baraboo against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Baraboo
Is Baraboo a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Baraboo ranks 10,281st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, walkability, and biking, 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 Baraboo expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $242,056. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $77,158 median income, cost of living beats 57% of towns.
Is Baraboo safe?
Yes, Baraboo is safer than 80% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $232 per resident a year.
Compare Baraboo with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Baraboo. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Baraboo 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.
Baraboo detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Baraboo: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Baraboo: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Baraboo: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Baraboo: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Baraboo 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.