Best PlacesDover, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Dover, 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.
Dover ranks 32,885th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Empty homes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on health care access.
The best neighborhoods in Dover
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.
Dover's strengths and weaknesses
Where Dover ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 90% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 89% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 83% of towns
Where Dover ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 11% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Dover
A household needs to earn about $48,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Dover home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $66,735, 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 Dover'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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Dover
Dover 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 Dover.
Who works in Dover, and how
Work in Dover centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Dover
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Dover.
What the weather is like in Dover, month by month
Dover sees roughly 90 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 15° | 7° |
| April | 51° | 39° | 29° |
| July | 79° | 67° | 56° |
| October | 55° | 45° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Dover
The nearest airport, Rhinelander/Oneida County, is about 32 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 158 miles away.
The best schools in and around Dover
Schools across Dover average a C, better than 38% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Prentice ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
- Phillips ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Prentice MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
- Phillips MiddleC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Phillips HighC− · 27% proficient
- Prentice HighD · 21% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Dover school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Dover 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 Dover against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Dover
Is Dover a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Dover ranks 32,885th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, heat safety, and low disaster risk, and lowest on empty homes and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Dover expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $174,351. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $66,735 median income, cost of living beats 44% of towns.
Is Dover safe?
Dover is safer than 30% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $384 per resident a year.
Compare Dover with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Dover. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Dover 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.
Dover detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Dover: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Dover: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Dover: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Dover: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Dover 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.