Best PlacesBay City, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Bay City, 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.
Bay City ranks 8,875th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low crime by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Bay City
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.
Bay City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bay City ranks high
- Crime safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 93% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 86% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 85% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 78% of towns
Where Bay City ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 19% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 23% of towns
- Cheap childcare$948 a month, better than only 30% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 30% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 33% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Bay City
A household needs to earn about $75,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bay City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $91,509, 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 Bay City's effective rate of 1.20%, 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.
Who lives in Bay City
Bay City 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 Bay City.
Who works in Bay City, and how
Work in Bay City centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Bay City
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Bay City.
What the weather is like in Bay City, month by month
Bay City sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 11. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 18° | 11° |
| April | 57° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Bay City
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 Bay City
Schools across Bay City average a B−, better than 57% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Ellsworth ElementaryA− · 61% proficient
- Sunnyside ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ellsworth MiddleB− · 43% proficient
- Twin Bluff SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Ellsworth HighC+ · 38% proficient
- Red Wing Senior HighC+ · 36% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bay City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bay City 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 Bay City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Bay City
Is Bay City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bay City ranks 8,875th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low crime, cheap car insurance, and health care access, and lowest on property taxes and cell coverage. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bay City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $270,960. The overall cost of living runs about 8% below the national average. Set against a $91,509 median income, cost of living beats 78% of towns.
Is Bay City safe?
Yes, Bay City is safer than 97% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $147 per resident a year.
Compare Bay City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bay City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bay City 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.
Bay City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bay City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bay City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bay City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bay City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bay City 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.