Best PlacesHerbster, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Herbster, 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.
Herbster ranks 17,085th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Herbster
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.
Herbster's strengths and weaknesses
Where Herbster ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 94% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 93% of towns
Where Herbster ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 14% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 14% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Herbster
A household needs to earn about $71,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Herbster home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $68,125; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Herbster's effective rate of 1.00%, 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 Herbster
Herbster 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 Herbster.
Who works in Herbster, and how
Work in Herbster centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 79%
- Work from home 17%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Herbster
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Herbster.
What the weather is like in Herbster, month by month
Herbster sees roughly 119 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 78 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 13. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 19° | 13° |
| April | 46° | 37° | 29° |
| July | 78° | 66° | 55° |
| October | 54° | 46° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Herbster
The nearest airport, Duluth International, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 165 miles away.
The best schools in and around Herbster
Schools across Herbster average a B+, better than 78% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- South Shore ElementaryA− · 62% proficient
- Bayfield ElementaryF · 9% proficient
Top high schools
- South Shore Jr/sr HighB+ · 53% proficient
- Wm. M. Kelley SecondaryB− · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Herbster school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Herbster 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 Herbster against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Herbster
Is Herbster a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Herbster ranks 17,085th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, health care access, and tree cover, and lowest on empty homes and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Herbster expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $263,800. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $68,125 median income, cost of living beats 33% of towns.
Is Herbster safe?
Herbster is safer than 38% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $346 per resident a year.
Compare Herbster with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Herbster. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Herbster 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.
Herbster detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Herbster: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Herbster: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Herbster: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Herbster: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Herbster 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.