Best PlacesPortage, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Portage, 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.
Portage ranks 23,997th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Portage
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.
Portage's strengths and weaknesses
Where Portage ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of towns
- TransitBetter than 93% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 90% of towns
- BikingBetter than 88% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 87% of towns
Where Portage ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 13% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
- School gradeC−, better than only 28% of towns
- Cheap childcare$946 a month, better than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Portage
A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Portage home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,275, 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 Portage's effective rate of 1.39%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Portage
Portage'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 Portage.
Who works in Portage, and how
Work in Portage 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 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Portage
Portage has more restaurants and bars per resident than 79% of towns and more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Portage and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Portage, month by month
Portage sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 83 degrees. January highs sit near 28, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 28° | 20° | 14° |
| April | 57° | 45° | 35° |
| July | 83° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Portage
The nearest airport, Dane County Regional/Truax Field, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 89 miles away.
The best schools in and around Portage
Schools across Portage average a C−, better than 28% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Endeavor ElementaryA · 68% proficient
- Muir ElementaryB− · 44% proficient
- Pardeeville ElementaryC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wisconsin Dells Middle SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Wayne Bartels MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
- Pardeeville MiddleC− · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Pardeeville HighC+ · 40% proficient
- Portage HighD+ · 25% proficient
- Wisconsin Dells HighD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Portage school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Portage 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 Portage against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Portage
Is Portage a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Portage ranks 23,997th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, transit, and walkability, and lowest on noise and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Portage expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $224,210. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $72,275 median income, cost of living beats 47% of towns.
Is Portage safe?
Portage is safer than 48% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $329 per resident a year.
Compare Portage with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Portage. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Portage 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.
Portage detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Portage: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Portage: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Portage: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Portage: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Portage 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.