Best PlacesMadsen Beach, SD Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Madsen Beach, 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.
Madsen Beach ranks 20,710th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low taxes by a wide margin, and biking ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Madsen Beach
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.
Madsen Beach's strengths and weaknesses
Where Madsen Beach ranks high
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 98% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than 90% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 130 pleasant days a year, better than 85% of towns
- Short commute21.3 minutes each way, better than 83% of towns
Where Madsen Beach ranks low
- BikingBetter than only 3% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 8% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 15% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Madsen Beach
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Madsen Beach home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $75,400, 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 Madsen Beach's effective rate of 0.69%, 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 Madsen Beach
Madsen Beach runs older than the country, 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 Madsen Beach.
Who works in Madsen Beach, and how
Work in Madsen Beach centers on agriculture & forestry and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Madsen Beach
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Madsen Beach.
What the weather is like in Madsen Beach, month by month
Madsen Beach sees roughly 130 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 15° | 7° |
| April | 54° | 42° | 34° |
| July | 84° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 58° | 47° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Madsen Beach
The nearest airport, Watertown Regional, is about 42 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 175 miles away.
The best schools in and around Madsen Beach
Schools across Madsen Beach average a D+, better than 15% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Wilmot Elementary - 02D+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wilmot Middle School - 03D · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Wilmot High School - 01D+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Madsen Beach school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Madsen Beach 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 Madsen Beach against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Madsen Beach
Is Madsen Beach a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Madsen Beach ranks 20,710th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low taxes, cell coverage, and state infrastructure, and lowest on biking 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 Madsen Beach expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $193,300. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $75,400 median income, cost of living beats 73% of towns.
Is Madsen Beach safe?
Madsen Beach is safer than 36% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $378 per resident a year.
Compare Madsen Beach with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Madsen Beach. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Madsen Beach 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.
Madsen Beach detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Madsen Beach: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Madsen Beach: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Madsen Beach: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Madsen Beach: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Madsen Beach 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.