Best PlacesLittle Black, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Little Black, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Little Black ranks 12,292nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Little Black
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.
Little Black's strengths and weaknesses
Where Little Black ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 89% of towns
- Short commute20.0 minutes each way, better than 88% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 136 pleasant days a year, better than 87% of towns
Where Little Black ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 17% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 18% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 33% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 38% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 38% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Little Black
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Little Black home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,236, 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 Little Black's effective rate of 1.27%, 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 Little Black
Little Black runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Little Black.
Who works in Little Black, and how
Work in Little Black centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Little Black
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Little Black.
What the weather is like in Little Black, month by month
Little Black sees roughly 136 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 78 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 15° | 9° |
| April | 51° | 40° | 32° |
| July | 78° | 67° | 57° |
| October | 55° | 45° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Little Black
The nearest airport, Central Wisconsin, is about 40 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 143 miles away.
The best schools in and around Little Black
Schools across Little Black average a C, better than 41% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Medford ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Medford MiddleB− · 41% proficient
Top high schools
- Medford HighD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Little Black school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Little Black 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 Little Black against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Little Black
Is Little Black a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Little Black ranks 12,292nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, cheap car insurance, and low disaster risk, and lowest on property taxes 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 Little Black expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $214,316. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $73,236 median income, cost of living beats 59% of towns.
Is Little Black safe?
Yes, Little Black is safer than 86% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $202 per resident a year.
Compare Little Black with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Little Black. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Little Black 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.
Little Black detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Little Black: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Little Black: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Little Black: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Little Black: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Little Black 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.