Best PlacesPine Lake, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Pine Lake, 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.
Pine Lake ranks 28,635th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and internet speeds rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Pine Lake
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.
Pine Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Pine Lake ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 98% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 90% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 87% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 83% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 82% of towns
Where Pine Lake ranks low
- Internet speedBetter than only 2% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- BikingBetter than only 16% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 16% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Pine Lake
A household needs to earn about $76,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Pine Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $63,185, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Pine Lake's effective rate of 0.97%, 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 Pine Lake
Pine Lake 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 Pine Lake.
Who works in Pine Lake, and how
Work in Pine Lake centers on education and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Pine Lake
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Pine Lake.
What the weather is like in Pine Lake, month by month
Pine Lake sees roughly 89 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 22, with lows near 7. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 22° | 14° | 7° |
| April | 49° | 37° | 28° |
| July | 79° | 66° | 54° |
| October | 53° | 44° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Pine Lake
The nearest airport, Gogebic/Iron County, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 178 miles away.
The best schools in and around Pine Lake
Schools across Pine Lake average a C, better than 29% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Glidden ElementaryA+ · 75% proficient
- North Lakeland ElementaryA− · 57% proficient
- Hurley ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
Top high schools
- Hurley HighC+ · 37% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Pine Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Pine Lake 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 Pine Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Pine Lake
Is Pine Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Pine Lake ranks 28,635th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, cheap car insurance, and civic engagement, and lowest on internet speeds 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 Pine Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $282,379. The overall cost of living runs about 4% below the national average. Set against a $63,185 median income, cost of living beats 24% of towns.
Is Pine Lake safe?
Yes, Pine Lake is safer than 65% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $261 per resident a year.
Compare Pine Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Pine Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Pine Lake 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.
Pine Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Pine Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Pine Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Pine Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Pine Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Pine Lake 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.