Best PlacesHillside, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hillside, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Hillside ranks 18,042nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hillside
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.
Hillside's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hillside ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of towns
- Household income$103,700 median, better than 87% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 87% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 86% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 85% of towns
Where Hillside ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,274 a month, better than only 11% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 12% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 15% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 18% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hillside
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hillside home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $103,700, 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 Hillside's effective rate of 1.21%, 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 Hillside
Hillside runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Hillside.
Who works in Hillside, and how
Work in Hillside 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 81%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Hillside
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Hillside.
What the weather is like in Hillside, month by month
Hillside sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 22° | 14° |
| April | 60° | 46° | 34° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 64° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Hillside
The nearest airport, Dane County Regional/Truax Field, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 58 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hillside
Schools across Hillside average a C+, better than 52% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Cambridge ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
- Edgerton Community ElementaryC+ · 40% proficient
- Kegonsa ElementaryC · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- Nikolay MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Edgerton MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Cambridge HighC− · 27% proficient
- Edgerton HighD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hillside school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hillside 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 Hillside against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hillside
Is Hillside a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hillside ranks 18,042nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, high incomes, and heat safety, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Hillside expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $332,843. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $103,700 median income, cost of living beats 85% of towns.
Is Hillside safe?
Hillside is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $370 per resident a year.
Compare Hillside with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hillside. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hillside 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.
Hillside detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hillside: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hillside: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hillside: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hillside: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hillside 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.