Best PlacesOwen, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Owen, 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.
Owen ranks 27,349th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on heat safety by a wide margin, and education levels rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Owen
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.
Owen's strengths and weaknesses
Where Owen ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 92% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 91% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 137 pleasant days a year, better than 88% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 84% of towns
Where Owen ranks low
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 6% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 13% of towns
- School gradeD+, better than only 14% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 17% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 17% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Owen
A household needs to earn about $41,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Owen home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $68,679, 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 Owen's effective rate of 1.26%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Owen
Owen runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Owen.
Who works in Owen, and how
Work in Owen centers on manufacturing and agriculture & forestry. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 77%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 13%
Life in Owen
Owen has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Owen and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Owen, month by month
Owen sees roughly 137 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 78 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 15° | 9° |
| April | 51° | 40° | 32° |
| July | 78° | 67° | 57° |
| October | 55° | 45° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Owen
The nearest airport, Central Wisconsin, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 131 miles away.
The best schools in and around Owen
Schools across Owen average a D+, better than 14% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Greenwood ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
- Thorp ElementaryB · 49% proficient
- Medford ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Medford MiddleB− · 41% proficient
- Loyal Middle SchoolC− · 28% proficient
- Owen-withee Junior HighD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Greenwood HighC− · 30% proficient
- Medford HighD · 20% proficient
- Loyal HighD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Owen school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Owen 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 Owen against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Owen
Is Owen a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Owen ranks 27,349th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on heat safety, cheap car insurance, and low disaster risk, and lowest on education levels and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Owen expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $148,405. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $68,679 median income, cost of living beats 53% of towns.
Is Owen safe?
Owen is safer than 42% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $339 per resident a year.
Compare Owen with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Owen. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Owen 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.
Owen detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Owen: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Owen: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Owen: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Owen: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Owen 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.