Best PlacesMilwaukee, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Milwaukee metro, 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.
Photo by Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Milwaukee ranks 112th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on walkability and transit. The weaker spots are noise, property taxes, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee
The towns and districts of the Milwaukee 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.
West Bend, Hartford & Sussex
Crime runs lower, schools score higher, and incomes run higher.
Pewaukee & Delafield
Streets are more car-dependent and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Waukesha & Mukwonago
Local pay stretches further, though fewer households have young kids.
Mequon, Grafton & Port Washington
More adults hold degrees and health care is easier to reach.
West Allis, New Berlin & Franklin
Fewer homes sit empty.
Wauwatosa & Brookfield
Biking is better.
Menomonee Falls, Cedarburg & Germantown
Scores close to Wauwatosa & Brookfield, except that it is quieter here.
Oak Creek, South Milwaukee & Cudahy
Homes cost less, though fewer residents vote.
Downtown Milwaukee
Prices have run up more and tree cover is thinner.
Milwaukee shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Milwaukee's strengths and weaknesses
Milwaukee lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Walkability is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Transit and low disaster risk follow.
The one real hole is noise, near the bottom of the country. Property taxes and childcare costs also cost it ground. That varies block to block rather than evenly, and the map below shows where.
Where Milwaukee ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of metro areas
- TransitBetter than 97% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 89% of metro areas
Where Milwaukee ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,267 a month, better than only 17% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 26% of metro areas
- School gradeC, better than only 30% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Milwaukee
A household needs to earn about $90,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Milwaukee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $87,426; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Milwaukee'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 Milwaukee
Milwaukee's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Milwaukee.
Who works in Milwaukee, and how
Work in Milwaukee centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 78%
- Work from home 15%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Milwaukee
Milwaukee has more parkland per resident than 97% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 76% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Milwaukee and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Milwaukee growing, and who is moving in?
Milwaukee has held roughly flat in population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Chicago, IL.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Milwaukee go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Milwaukee, month by month
Milwaukee sees roughly 90 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 24° | 18° |
| April | 55° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Milwaukee
General Mitchell International sits about 8 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.9 million passengers in 2025, with 66 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Milwaukee
Schools across Milwaukee average a C, better than 30% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Mill Valley ElementaryA+ · 82% proficient
- Wauwatosa StemA+ · 82% proficient
- Marcy ElementaryA+ · 81% proficient
Top middle schools
- Whitefish Bay MiddleA+ · 72% proficient
- Bayside MiddleA+ · 69% proficient
- Muskego Lakes MiddleA+ · 68% proficient
Top high schools
- Km Global SchA · 75% proficient
- Eisenhower Middle/highA− · 61% proficient
- Cedarburg HighA− · 60% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Milwaukee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Milwaukee 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 Milwaukee against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Milwaukee suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 73% of metro areas and 15% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Milwaukee
Is Milwaukee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Milwaukee ranks 112th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on walkability, transit, and low disaster risk, and lowest on noise and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Milwaukee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $311,089. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $87,426 median income, cost of living beats 73% of metro areas.
Is Milwaukee safe?
Milwaukee is safer than 26% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $423 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Milwaukee?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 30 with lows near 18. That works out to about 90 pleasant days a year, more than 52% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Milwaukee?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are West Bend, Hartford & Sussex, Pewaukee & Delafield, and Waukesha & Mukwonago. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Milwaukee good for families?
Schools beat 30% of metro areas, crime safety beats 26%, and childcare runs $1,267 a month.
Is Milwaukee good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 73% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 52% of metro areas. About 15% of workers already work from home.
Compare Milwaukee with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Milwaukee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Milwaukee 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.
Milwaukee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Milwaukee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Milwaukee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Milwaukee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Milwaukee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Milwaukee 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.