Best PlacesMadison, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Madison metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Yinan Chen, Public Domain, via commons
Madison ranks 59th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $95,571, everyday costs sit below the national average, and an educated workforce ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are property taxes, noise, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the Madison 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 Madison
The towns and districts of the Madison 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.
Cross Plains
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and more adults hold degrees.
Fitchburg, Oregon & Brodhead
Streets are more car-dependent and biking is worse.
Sun Prairie
Crime runs lower and more households have young kids.
Waunakee, Portage & Poynette
Transit reaches fewer jobs.
Verona, Monroe & Mount Horeb
It is quieter and homes cost less.
Cottage Grove, Monona & Deerfield
Schools score lower.
Stoughton & McFarland
Advertised internet is faster.
Downtown Madison
Health care is harder to reach.
Lodi, Mazomanie & Wisconsin Dells
Tree cover is thicker, though more homes sit empty.
Madison shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 12% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Madison's strengths and weaknesses
Madison ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Few empty homes, heat safety, and civic engagement carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Property taxes, noise, and childcare costs hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Madison ranks high
- Low vacancyBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than 94% of metro areas
Where Madison ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,237 a month, better than only 18% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 35% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 37% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Madison
A household needs to earn about $112,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Madison home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $95,571, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Madison's effective rate of 1.55%, 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 Madison
Madison'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 Madison.
Who works in Madison, and how
Work in Madison centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 71%
- Work from home 19%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Madison
Madison has more parkland per resident than 97% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 93% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Madison and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Madison growing, and who is moving in?
Madison has grown about 12% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Milwaukee, WI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Madison go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Madison, month by month
Madison sees roughly 82 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 Madison
The nearest airport, Dane County Regional/Truax Field, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 76 miles away.
The best schools in and around Madison
Schools across Madison average a B−, better than 60% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Shorewood Hills ElementaryA+ · 77% proficient
- Randall Elementary SchoolA+ · 74% proficient
- Van Hise ElementaryA · 72% proficient
Top middle schools
- Hamilton MiddleA+ · 68% proficient
- Waunakee MiddleA · 65% proficient
- Waunakee IntermediateA · 63% proficient
Top high schools
- West HighB+ · 56% proficient
- Waunakee HighB+ · 54% proficient
- Middleton HighB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Madison school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Madison 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 Madison against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Madison suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of metro areas and 19% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Madison
Is Madison a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Madison ranks 59th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on few empty homes, heat safety, 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 Madison expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $389,491. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $95,571 median income, cost of living beats 84% of metro areas.
Is Madison safe?
Madison is safer than 35% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $389 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Madison?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 30 with lows near 14. That works out to about 82 pleasant days a year, more than 42% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Madison?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Cross Plains, Fitchburg, Oregon & Brodhead, and Sun Prairie. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Madison good for families?
Schools beat 60% of metro areas, crime safety beats 35%, and childcare runs $1,237 a month.
Is Madison good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 40% of metro areas. About 19% of workers already work from home.
Compare Madison with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Madison. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Madison 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.
Madison detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Madison: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Madison: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Madison: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Madison: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Madison 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.