Best PlacesFond Du Lac, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Fond Du Lac 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.
Photo by Royalbroil, CC BY-SA 3.0, via wiki
Fond Du Lac ranks 95th 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 health care access. The weaker spots are transit, property taxes, and cell coverage.
The best neighborhoods in the Fond Du Lac 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 Fond Du Lac
The towns and districts of the Fond Du Lac 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.
Waupun & Brandon
Local pay stretches further, it is quieter, and incomes run higher.
Campbellsport
More homes sit empty and streets are more car-dependent.
Ripon
Crime runs lower, though fewer households have young kids.
North Fond du Lac
Schools score lower and fewer adults hold degrees.
Downtown Fond Du Lac
Biking is better and homes cost less.
Scores across Fond Du Lac run from about the 17th to the 92nd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Fond Du Lac's strengths and weaknesses
Fond Du Lac ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Cheap car insurance is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Health care access and low disaster risk follow.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Transit, property taxes, and cell coverage hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Fond Du Lac ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 84% of metro areas
Where Fond Du Lac ranks low
- TransitBetter than only 13% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than only 24% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 28% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 28% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Fond Du Lac
A household needs to earn about $65,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fond Du Lac home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,937, 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 Fond Du Lac's effective rate of 1.42%, 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 Fond Du Lac
Fond Du Lac'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 Fond Du Lac.
Who works in Fond Du Lac, and how
Work in Fond Du Lac centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Fond Du Lac
Fond Du Lac has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 95% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Fond Du Lac and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Fond Du Lac growing, and who is moving in?
Fond Du Lac has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Oshkosh, WI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Fond Du Lac go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Fond Du Lac, month by month
Fond Du Lac sees roughly 117 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 22° | 15° |
| April | 56° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 62° | 52° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Fond Du Lac
The nearest airport, Appleton International, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 63 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fond Du Lac
Schools across Fond Du Lac average a C+, better than 32% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Rosendale IntermediateA− · 59% proficient
- Oakfield ElementaryA− · 57% proficient
- Campbellsport ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Rosendale-brandon MiddleB+ · 52% proficient
- New Holstein MiddleB · 46% proficient
- Campbellsport MiddleB · 45% proficient
Top high schools
- Fond Du Lac Stem AcademyB · 47% proficient
- West HighB− · 42% proficient
- Fond Du Lac HighC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fond Du Lac school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fond Du Lac 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 Fond Du Lac against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Fond Du Lac suits
Families
Schools land around the 32nd percentile and crime safety beats 84%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 71% of metro areas and 10% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 72% of metro areas and health care access beats 91%.
Common questions about living in Fond Du Lac
Is Fond Du Lac a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fond Du Lac ranks 95th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, health care access, and low disaster risk, and lowest on transit and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fond Du Lac expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $230,835. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $79,937 median income, cost of living beats 71% of metro areas.
Is Fond Du Lac safe?
Yes, Fond Du Lac is safer than 84% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $264 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Fond Du Lac?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 29 with lows near 15. That works out to about 117 pleasant days a year, more than 72% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Fond Du Lac?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Waupun & Brandon, Campbellsport, and Ripon. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Fond Du Lac good for families?
Schools beat 32% of metro areas, crime safety beats 84%, and childcare runs $1,055 a month.
Is Fond Du Lac good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 71% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 32% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Fond Du Lac with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fond Du Lac. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fond Du Lac 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.
Fond Du Lac detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fond Du Lac: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fond Du Lac: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fond Du Lac: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fond Du Lac: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fond Du Lac 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.