Best PlacesEau Claire, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Eau Claire metro, 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.
Eau Claire ranks 82nd of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on cheap car insurance and civic engagement. The weaker spots are cell coverage, childcare costs, and property taxes.
The best neighborhoods in the Eau Claire metro
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.
The best areas in Eau Claire
The towns and districts of the Eau Claire metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Altoona
Fewer homes sit empty, more adults hold degrees, and prices have run up less.
Downtown Eau Claire
Biking is better, though fewer households have young kids.
Lake Hallie
More residents vote, though it is noisier.
Chippewa Falls
Advertised internet is faster.
Fall Creek & Augusta
Commutes are longer and health outcomes score lower.
Bloomer
Tree cover is thinner and local pay stretches less far.
Stanley, Cadott & Cornell
Streets are more car-dependent.
Scores across Eau Claire run from about the 22nd to the 96th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Eau Claire's strengths and weaknesses
Eau Claire ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Cheap car insurance, civic engagement, and heat safety carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, childcare costs, and property taxes hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Eau Claire ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 89% of metro areas
Where Eau Claire ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 21% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,166 a month, better than only 23% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 29% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 30% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 30% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Eau Claire
A household needs to earn about $74,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Eau Claire home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $81,091, 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 Eau Claire'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 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 Eau Claire
Eau Claire'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 Eau Claire.
Who works in Eau Claire, and how
Work in Eau Claire centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Eau Claire
Eau Claire has more parkland per resident than 99% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Eau Claire and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Eau Claire growing, and who is moving in?
Eau Claire has grown about 7% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Minneapolis, MN.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Eau Claire go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Eau Claire, month by month
Eau Claire sees roughly 115 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 18° | 10° |
| April | 56° | 44° | 34° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 61° |
| October | 59° | 49° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Eau Claire
The nearest airport, Chippewa Valley Regional, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 85 miles away.
The best schools in and around Eau Claire
Schools across Eau Claire average a B−, better than 54% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Chippewa Valley Montessori Charter SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Meadowview ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
- Altoona IntermediateB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Elk Mound MiddleB+ · 52% proficient
- South MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Delong MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Memorial HighB+ · 51% proficient
- Fall Creek HighB− · 43% proficient
- North HighC+ · 39% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Eau Claire school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Eau Claire 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 Eau Claire against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Eau Claire suits
Families
Schools land around the 54th percentile and crime safety beats 78%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 13% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 70% of metro areas and health care access beats 89%.
Common questions about living in Eau Claire
Is Eau Claire a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Eau Claire ranks 82nd of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, civic engagement, and heat safety, and lowest on cell coverage and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Eau Claire expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $269,021. The overall cost of living runs about 9% below the national average. Set against a $81,091 median income, cost of living beats 53% of metro areas.
Is Eau Claire safe?
Yes, Eau Claire is safer than 78% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $282 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Eau Claire?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 25 with lows near 10. That works out to about 115 pleasant days a year, more than 70% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Eau Claire?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Altoona, Downtown Eau Claire, and Lake Hallie. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Eau Claire good for families?
Schools beat 54% of metro areas, crime safety beats 78%, and childcare runs $1,166 a month.
Is Eau Claire good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 53% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 71% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Eau Claire with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Eau Claire. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Eau Claire 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.
Eau Claire detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Eau Claire: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Eau Claire: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Eau Claire: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Eau Claire: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Eau Claire 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.