Best PlacesPark Falls, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Park Falls, 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.
Park Falls ranks 28,633rd 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 Park Falls
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.
Park Falls' strengths and weaknesses
Where Park Falls ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 95% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 94% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 89% of towns
- BikingBetter than 89% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 85% of towns
Where Park Falls ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 11% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 20% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 21% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Park Falls
A household needs to earn about $40,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Park Falls home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,325, 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 Park Falls' effective rate of 1.50%, 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 Park Falls
Park Falls 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 Park Falls.
Who works in Park Falls, and how
Work in Park Falls 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 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Park Falls
Park Falls has more restaurants and bars per resident than 90% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Park Falls and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Park Falls, month by month
Park Falls sees roughly 92 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 15° | 7° |
| April | 51° | 39° | 29° |
| July | 79° | 67° | 56° |
| October | 55° | 45° | 37° |
Flying in and out of Park Falls
The nearest airport, Gogebic/Iron County, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 153 miles away.
The best schools in and around Park Falls
Schools across Park Falls average a C−, better than 20% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Butternut ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
- Phillips ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
- Winter ElementaryC− · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Chequamegon MiddleC · 35% proficient
- Phillips MiddleC · 35% proficient
- Winter MiddleD · 20% proficient
Top high schools
- Phillips HighC− · 27% proficient
- Winter HighD+ · 25% proficient
- Class Act CharterD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Park Falls school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Park Falls 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 Park Falls against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Park Falls
Is Park Falls a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Park Falls ranks 28,633rd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, walkability, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on empty homes and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Park Falls expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $138,974. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $60,325 median income, cost of living beats 37% of towns.
Is Park Falls safe?
Park Falls is safer than 33% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $372 per resident a year.
Compare Park Falls with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Park Falls. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Park Falls 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.
Park Falls detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Park Falls: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Park Falls: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Park Falls: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Park Falls: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Park Falls 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.