Best PlacesMellen, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mellen, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Mellen ranks 23,421st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low disaster risk by a wide margin, and empty homes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mellen
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.
Mellen's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mellen ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 99% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 90% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 89% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 86% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 81% of towns
Where Mellen ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 18% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 22% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 22% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mellen
A household needs to earn about $40,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mellen home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $63,842, 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 Mellen's effective rate of 1.23%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mellen
Mellen 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 Mellen.
Who works in Mellen, and how
Work in Mellen centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Mellen
Mellen has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Mellen and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mellen, month by month
Mellen sees roughly 116 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 17° | 10° |
| April | 50° | 39° | 29° |
| July | 81° | 68° | 56° |
| October | 57° | 47° | 38° |
Flying in and out of Mellen
The nearest airport, Gogebic/Iron County, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 159 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mellen
Schools across Mellen average a B−, better than 52% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Glidden ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- Hurley ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Chequamegon MiddleC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Hurley HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Butternut HighC · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mellen school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mellen 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 Mellen against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mellen
Is Mellen a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mellen ranks 23,421st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, clean air, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on empty homes 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 Mellen expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $145,206. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $63,842 median income, cost of living beats 44% of towns.
Is Mellen safe?
Mellen is safer than 22% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $428 per resident a year.
Compare Mellen with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mellen. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mellen 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.
Mellen detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mellen: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mellen: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mellen: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mellen: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mellen 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.