Best PlacesBrown Deer, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Brown Deer, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Brown Deer ranks 5,996th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Brown Deer
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.
Brown Deer's strengths and weaknesses
Where Brown Deer ranks high
- TransitBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 90% of towns
Where Brown Deer ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 2% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 9% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,303 a month, better than only 10% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 13% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Brown Deer
A household needs to earn about $75,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Brown Deer home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $95,251, 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 Brown Deer's effective rate of 2.10%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Brown Deer
Brown Deer's age mix sits close to the national median, 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 Brown Deer.
Who works in Brown Deer, and how
Work in Brown Deer centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 68%
- Work from home 25%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Brown Deer
Brown Deer has more parkland per resident than 88% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Brown Deer and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Brown Deer, month by month
Brown Deer sees roughly 96 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 24° | 18° |
| April | 55° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Brown Deer
General Mitchell International sits about 16 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.9 million passengers in 2025, with 66 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Brown Deer
Schools across Brown Deer average a D+, better than 13% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Brown Deer ElementaryD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Brown Deer Middle/highD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Brown Deer school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Brown Deer 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 Brown Deer against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Brown Deer
Is Brown Deer a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Brown Deer ranks 5,996th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on transit, biking, and cell coverage, 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 Brown Deer expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $244,076. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $95,251 median income, cost of living beats 88% of towns.
Is Brown Deer safe?
Brown Deer is safer than 43% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $346 per resident a year.
Compare Brown Deer with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Brown Deer. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Brown Deer 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.
Brown Deer detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Brown Deer: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Brown Deer: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Brown Deer: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Brown Deer: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Brown Deer 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.