Best PlacesBrodhead, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brodhead, 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.
Brodhead ranks 17,738th 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 Brodhead
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.
Brodhead's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brodhead ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than 92% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of towns
- BikingBetter than 88% of towns
Where Brodhead ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 20% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,007 a month, better than only 24% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 29% of towns
- School gradeC, better than only 32% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brodhead
A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brodhead home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $70,716, 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 Brodhead's effective rate of 1.29%, 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 Brodhead
Brodhead 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 Brodhead.
Who works in Brodhead, and how
Work in Brodhead centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Brodhead
Brodhead has more restaurants and bars per resident than 83% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Brodhead and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brodhead, month by month
Brodhead sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 22° | 17° |
| April | 58° | 47° | 38° |
| July | 82° | 73° | 65° |
| October | 61° | 52° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Brodhead
The nearest airport, Chicago/Rockford International, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 78 miles away.
The best schools in and around Brodhead
Schools across Brodhead average a C, better than 32% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Northside ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Belleville ElementaryB · 47% proficient
- Parkview ElementaryB− · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Parkview Junior HighB · 45% proficient
- Brodhead MiddleB− · 41% proficient
- Belleville MiddleB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Parkview HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Belleville HighC · 33% proficient
- Albany HighD− · 17% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brodhead school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brodhead 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 Brodhead against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brodhead
Is Brodhead a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brodhead ranks 17,738th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, walkability, and few empty homes, and lowest on property taxes and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Brodhead expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $225,653. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $70,716 median income, cost of living beats 46% of towns.
Is Brodhead safe?
Brodhead is safer than 44% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $335 per resident a year.
Compare Brodhead with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brodhead. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brodhead 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.
Brodhead detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brodhead: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brodhead: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brodhead: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brodhead: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brodhead 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.