Best PlacesJanesville, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Janesville 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 Sa magnuson33, CC BY-SA 3.0, via geo
Janesville ranks 189th 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 few empty homes. The weaker spots are property taxes, noise, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the Janesville 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 Janesville
The towns and districts of the Janesville 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.
Evansville & Edgerton
It is quieter, incomes run higher, and schools score higher.
Milton
More residents vote, though fewer households have young kids.
Orfordville
Streets are more car-dependent and biking is worse.
Clinton
Fewer homes sit empty and local pay stretches further.
Downtown Janesville
Transit reaches more jobs.
Beloit
Fewer adults hold degrees and crime runs higher.
Scores across Janesville run from about the 11th to the 85th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Janesville's strengths and weaknesses
Janesville lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cheap car insurance, few empty homes, and civic engagement carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, noise, and childcare costs hold the score down. Cost swings more from one part of Janesville to another than it does between Janesville and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Janesville ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 82% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 81% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 79% of metro areas
Where Janesville ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 12% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,303 a month, better than only 15% of metro areas
- School gradeC, better than only 17% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 21% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Janesville
A household needs to earn about $67,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Janesville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,431, 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 Janesville's effective rate of 1.51%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Janesville
Janesville'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 Janesville.
Who works in Janesville, and how
Work in Janesville 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 87%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Janesville
Janesville has more parkland per resident than 96% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Janesville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Janesville growing, and who is moving in?
Janesville has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Madison, WI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Janesville go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Janesville, month by month
Janesville sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 24° | 18° |
| April | 60° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 53° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Janesville
The nearest airport, Chicago/Rockford International, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 59 miles away.
The best schools in and around Janesville
Schools across Janesville average a C, better than 17% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Roosevelt ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Monroe ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
- Kennedy ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Northside IntermediateB+ · 52% proficient
- Edgerton MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Milton MiddleB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Evansville HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Parkview HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Milton HighC− · 26% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Janesville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Janesville 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 Janesville against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Janesville suits
Families
Schools land around the 17th percentile and crime safety beats 61%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Janesville
Is Janesville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Janesville ranks 189th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, few empty homes, and civic engagement, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Janesville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $233,679. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $75,431 median income, cost of living beats 42% of metro areas.
Is Janesville safe?
Yes, Janesville is safer than 61% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $322 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Janesville?
July highs average about 84 degrees, and January highs near 30 with lows near 18. That works out to about 84 pleasant days a year, more than 46% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Janesville?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Evansville & Edgerton, Milton, and Orfordville. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Janesville good for families?
Schools beat 17% of metro areas, crime safety beats 61%, and childcare runs $1,303 a month.
Is Janesville good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 42% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 62% of metro areas. About 10% of workers already work from home.
Compare Janesville with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Janesville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Janesville 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.
Janesville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Janesville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Janesville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Janesville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Janesville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Janesville 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.