Best PlacesFranklin Heights, Milwaukee, WI Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Franklin Heights, Milwaukee, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Franklin Heights, Milwaukee ranks 5,687th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and health outcomes rank lowest.

#5,687
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 5,983 neighborhoods
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The best neighborhoods in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Franklin Heights, Milwaukee area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Franklin Heights, Milwaukee's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%Low disaster risk
Top 10%Transit
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Franklin Heights, Milwaukee with other neighborhoods.

Where Franklin Heights, Milwaukee ranks high

  • Disaster safetyBetter than 95% of neighborhoods
  • TransitBetter than 95% of neighborhoods
  • WalkabilityBetter than 82% of neighborhoods
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 76% of neighborhoods
  • Heat safetyBetter than 74% of neighborhoods

Where Franklin Heights, Milwaukee ranks low

  • Health outlookBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
  • Crime safetyBetter than only 1% of neighborhoods
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than only 4% of neighborhoods
  • Household income$35,795 median, better than only 5% of neighborhoods
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee

A household needs to earn about $23,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Franklin Heights, Milwaukee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $35,795, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$23,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$547
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $82,105 home
Median rent
$1,061
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$419
Property tax$101
Homeowners insurance$27

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 Franklin Heights, Milwaukee's effective rate of 1.47%, 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 2 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee

Franklin Heights, Milwaukee runs younger than the country.

Median age
31
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
17%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.8
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1830%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4915%
50 to 6413%
65 and older17%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Franklin Heights, Milwaukee.


Who works in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee, and how

Work in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
12%
below the national average
Unemployment
9.3%
above the national average
Job growth
+4.5%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social22%
Manufacturing14%
Education14%
Retail trade11%
Hospitality & food8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 68%
  • Work from home 12%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 20%

Life in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Franklin Heights, Milwaukee.


What the weather is like in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee, month by month

Franklin Heights, Milwaukee 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.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January30°24°18°
April55°45°36°
July82°72°63°
October61°51°43°

Flying in and out of Franklin Heights, Milwaukee

General Mitchell International sits about 10 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.9 million passengers in 2025, with 66 nonstop destinations.

Nearest airport
MKE
General Mitchell International, about 10 miles
Airport size
Medium hub
58th-busiest in the US, 66 nonstop destinations
Average drive
14 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Franklin Heights, Milwaukee

Schools across Franklin Heights, Milwaukee average a D−, better than 7% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Franklin Heights, Milwaukee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Franklin Heights, Milwaukee 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 Franklin Heights, Milwaukee against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee

Is Franklin Heights, Milwaukee a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Franklin Heights, Milwaukee ranks 5,687th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on low disaster risk, transit, and walkability, and lowest on health outcomes and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Franklin Heights, Milwaukee expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $82,105. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $35,795 median income, cost of living beats 6% of neighborhoods.

Is Franklin Heights, Milwaukee safe?

Franklin Heights, Milwaukee is safer than 1% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,670 per resident a year.


Compare Franklin Heights, Milwaukee with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Franklin Heights, Milwaukee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee 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.

Franklin Heights, Milwaukee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Franklin Heights, Milwaukee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Franklin Heights, Milwaukee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Franklin Heights, Milwaukee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Franklin Heights, Milwaukee detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.