Best PlacesMarblehead, WI Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Marblehead, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Marblehead ranks 2,903rd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.

#2,903
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Marblehead

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Marblehead area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Marblehead's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Cheap car insurance
Top 5%A strong job market
Top 10%Few empty homes
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Marblehead with other towns.

Where Marblehead ranks high

  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
  • Local economyBetter than 95% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than 93% of towns
  • Crime safetyBetter than 93% of towns
  • Healthcare accessBetter than 92% of towns

Where Marblehead ranks low

  • Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
  • QuietBetter than only 14% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 17% of towns
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 19% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$1,055 a month, better than only 21% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Marblehead

A household needs to earn about $86,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Marblehead home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $104,450, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$86,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$2,009
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $305,374 home
Median rent
$1,007
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,557
Property tax$350
Homeowners insurance$102

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 Marblehead's effective rate of 1.38%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Marblehead

Marblehead runs older than the country.

Median age
50
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
23%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1820%
18 to 3414%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6423%
65 and older24%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Marblehead.


Who works in Marblehead, and how

Work in Marblehead centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
10%
below the national average
Unemployment
0.8%
below the national average
Job growth
+4.1%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing19%
Health care & social14%
Construction12%
Education10%
Retail trade9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 88%
  • Work from home 10%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Marblehead

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Marblehead.


What the weather is like in Marblehead, month by month

Marblehead sees roughly 119 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January29°22°15°
April56°45°36°
July84°73°63°
October62°52°44°

Flying in and out of Marblehead

The nearest airport, Appleton International, is about 38 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 58 miles away.

Nearest airport
ATW
Appleton International, about 38 miles
Airport size
Small hub
130th-busiest in the US, 30 nonstop destinations
Average drive
55 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Marblehead

Schools across Marblehead average a B−, better than 54% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Marblehead school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Marblehead 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 Marblehead against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Marblehead

Is Marblehead a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Marblehead ranks 2,903rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, a strong job market, and few empty homes, 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 Marblehead expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $305,374. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $104,450 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.

Is Marblehead safe?

Yes, Marblehead is safer than 93% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $174 per resident a year.


Compare Marblehead with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Marblehead. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Marblehead 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.

Marblehead detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Marblehead: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Marblehead: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Marblehead: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Marblehead: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Marblehead detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.