Best PlacesLa Crosse, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the La Crosse 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 WeaponizingArchitecture, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
La Crosse ranks 147th 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 health care access and cheap car insurance. The weaker spots are cell coverage, property taxes, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the La Crosse 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 La Crosse
The towns and districts of the La Crosse 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.
West Salem & Bangor
More households have young kids, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Onalaska
Prices have run up less, though it is noisier.
Holmen & French Island
Crime runs lower, though biking is worse.
Caledonia
Fewer adults hold degrees and commutes are longer.
Downtown La Crosse
Streets are more walkable.
Viroqua, Westby & Hillsboro
Tree cover is thicker, though more homes sit empty.
La Crescent
Fewer residents vote and health care is harder to reach.
La Crosse shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 13% of the country and others in the top 3%. Pick the area first, then the home.
La Crosse's strengths and weaknesses
La Crosse lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Health care access, cheap car insurance, and civic engagement carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Cell coverage, property taxes, and childcare costs hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where La Crosse ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Short commute20.1 minutes each way, better than 85% of metro areas
- WalkabilityBetter than 83% of metro areas
Where La Crosse ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 15% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 17% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,184 a month, better than only 22% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 24% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 26% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in La Crosse
A household needs to earn about $75,000 a year to comfortably buy the median La Crosse home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $78,338, 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 La Crosse's effective rate of 1.40%, 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 La Crosse
La Crosse'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 La Crosse.
Who works in La Crosse, and how
Work in La Crosse centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in La Crosse
La Crosse has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 98% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of La Crosse and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is La Crosse growing, and who is moving in?
La Crosse has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Milwaukee, WI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving La Crosse go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in La Crosse, month by month
La Crosse sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 86 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 21° | 14° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 39° |
| July | 86° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 63° | 52° | 44° |
Flying in and out of La Crosse
The nearest airport, La Crosse Regional, is about 5 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 124 miles away.
The best schools in and around La Crosse
Schools across La Crosse average a C+, better than 43% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- School Of Technology And Arts IA− · 62% proficient
- Eagle Bluff ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
- Pertzsch ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- West Salem MiddleB+ · 50% proficient
- Lincoln MiddleB · 45% proficient
- Holmen MiddleB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- West Salem HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Onalaska HighC · 34% proficient
- La Crosse Polytechnic SchoolC · 33% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every La Crosse school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
La Crosse 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 La Crosse against the other 386 metro areas.
Who La Crosse suits
Families
Schools land around the 43rd percentile and crime safety beats 68%.
Retirees
The weather beats 57% of metro areas and health care access beats 96%.
Common questions about living in La Crosse
Is La Crosse a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, La Crosse ranks 147th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on health care access, cheap car insurance, and civic engagement, and lowest on cell coverage and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is La Crosse expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $265,335. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $78,338 median income, cost of living beats 48% of metro areas.
Is La Crosse safe?
Yes, La Crosse is safer than 68% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $307 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in La Crosse?
July highs average about 86 degrees, and January highs near 29 with lows near 14. That works out to about 97 pleasant days a year, more than 57% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in La Crosse?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are West Salem & Bangor, Onalaska, and Holmen & French Island. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is La Crosse good for families?
Schools beat 43% of metro areas, crime safety beats 68%, and childcare runs $1,184 a month.
Is La Crosse good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 48% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 50% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare La Crosse with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to La Crosse. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in La Crosse 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.
La Crosse detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for La Crosse: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in La Crosse: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of La Crosse: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in La Crosse: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
La Crosse 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.