Best PlacesOshkosh, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Oshkosh 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 self, CC BY-SA 2.5, via wiki
Oshkosh ranks 97th 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 cheap car insurance and health care access. The weaker spots are noise, property taxes, and childcare costs.
The best neighborhoods in the Oshkosh 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 Oshkosh
The towns and districts of the Oshkosh 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.
Winneconne & Omro
It is quieter, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Neenah & Menasha
More households have young kids and fewer homes sit empty.
Larsen
Downtown Oshkosh
Biking is better, though crime runs higher.
Oshkosh shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Oshkosh's strengths and weaknesses
Oshkosh lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cheap car insurance is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Health care access and heat safety 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 Oshkosh ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Heat safetyBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Short commute19.4 minutes each way, better than 90% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 89% of metro areas
Where Oshkosh ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 11% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,303 a month, better than only 15% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 24% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 41% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Oshkosh
A household needs to earn about $68,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oshkosh home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,021, 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 Oshkosh's effective rate of 1.54%, 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 Oshkosh
Oshkosh'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 Oshkosh.
Who works in Oshkosh, and how
Work in Oshkosh centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Oshkosh
Oshkosh has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and more parkland per resident than 81% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Oshkosh and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Oshkosh growing, and who is moving in?
Oshkosh has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Appleton, WI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Oshkosh go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Oshkosh, month by month
Oshkosh sees roughly 149 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 15. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 21° | 15° |
| April | 55° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 83° | 73° | 63° |
| October | 60° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Oshkosh
The nearest airport, Appleton International, is about 16 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 82 miles away.
The best schools in and around Oshkosh
Schools across Oshkosh average a C+, better than 42% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Lakeview ElementaryA− · 60% proficient
- Rosendale IntermediateA− · 59% proficient
- Traeger ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Accelerated Advanced Learning ProgramA+ · 88% proficient
- Winneconne MiddleA · 67% proficient
- Traeger MiddleA− · 56% proficient
Top high schools
- Neenah HighB · 48% proficient
- Winneconne HighB− · 43% proficient
- West HighB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oshkosh school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Oshkosh 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 Oshkosh against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Oshkosh suits
Families
Schools land around the 42nd percentile and crime safety beats 64%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 12% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 87% of metro areas and health care access beats 96%.
Common questions about living in Oshkosh
Is Oshkosh a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oshkosh ranks 97th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, health care access, and heat safety, 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 Oshkosh expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $237,338. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $80,021 median income, cost of living beats 53% of metro areas.
Is Oshkosh safe?
Yes, Oshkosh is safer than 64% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $315 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Oshkosh?
July highs average about 83 degrees, and January highs near 28 with lows near 15. That works out to about 149 pleasant days a year, more than 87% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Oshkosh?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Winneconne & Omro, Neenah & Menasha, and Larsen. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Oshkosh good for families?
Schools beat 42% of metro areas, crime safety beats 64%, and childcare runs $1,303 a month.
Is Oshkosh good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 53% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 89% of metro areas. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Oshkosh with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oshkosh. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oshkosh 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.
Oshkosh detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Oshkosh: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Oshkosh: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Oshkosh: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Oshkosh: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Oshkosh 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.