Best PlacesLancaster, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Lancaster, 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.
Lancaster ranks 5,836th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Lancaster
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.
Lancaster's strengths and weaknesses
Where Lancaster ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 95% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 93% of towns
- Short commute19.5 minutes each way, better than 89% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 83% of towns
- BikingBetter than 81% of towns
Where Lancaster ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 22% of towns
- Cheap childcare$948 a month, better than only 30% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than only 31% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 38% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 38% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Lancaster
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lancaster home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,635, 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 Lancaster's effective rate of 1.14%, 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 Lancaster
Lancaster runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lancaster.
Who works in Lancaster, and how
Work in Lancaster 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 85%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Lancaster
Lancaster has more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Lancaster and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Lancaster, month by month
Lancaster sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 21° | 15° |
| April | 58° | 47° | 38° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 64° |
| October | 62° | 52° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Lancaster
The nearest airport, Dubuque Regional, is about 30 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 142 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lancaster
Schools across Lancaster average a B−, better than 56% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Westview ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
- Winskill ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Potosi ElementaryB · 50% proficient
Top middle schools
- Platteville MiddleB+ · 52% proficient
- Fennimore MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Potosi MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
Top high schools
- Platteville HighC · 33% proficient
- Fennimore HighC− · 30% proficient
- Lancaster HighC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lancaster school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lancaster 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 Lancaster against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Lancaster
Is Lancaster a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lancaster ranks 5,836th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, cheap car insurance, and short commutes, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lancaster expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $209,777. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $82,635 median income, cost of living beats 79% of towns.
Is Lancaster safe?
Yes, Lancaster is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $230 per resident a year.
Compare Lancaster with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lancaster. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lancaster 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.
Lancaster detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lancaster: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lancaster: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lancaster: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lancaster: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lancaster 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.