Best PlacesPoynette, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Poynette, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Poynette ranks 8,375th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cheap car insurance by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Poynette
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.
Poynette's strengths and weaknesses
Where Poynette ranks high
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 88% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 87% of towns
- Household income$101,522 median, better than 86% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 85% of towns
Where Poynette ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 15% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 24% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 25% of towns
- Cheap childcare$948 a month, better than only 30% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 30% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Poynette
A household needs to earn about $89,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Poynette home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $101,522, 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 Poynette's effective rate of 1.33%, 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 Poynette
Poynette 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 Poynette.
Who works in Poynette, and how
Work in Poynette centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Poynette
Poynette has more restaurants and bars per resident than 74% of towns and more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Poynette and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Poynette, month by month
Poynette sees roughly 80 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 22° | 14° |
| April | 60° | 46° | 34° |
| July | 85° | 73° | 62° |
| October | 64° | 51° | 41° |
Flying in and out of Poynette
The nearest airport, Dane County Regional/Truax Field, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 83 miles away.
The best schools in and around Poynette
Schools across Poynette average a B−, better than 57% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rio ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Poynette ElementaryB · 47% proficient
- Lodi ElementaryC+ · 35% proficient
Top middle schools
- De Forest MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Poynette MiddleB · 45% proficient
- Lodi MiddleB− · 39% proficient
Top high schools
- Lodi HighB− · 45% proficient
- Poynette HighC+ · 35% proficient
- De Forest HighC · 34% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Poynette school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Poynette 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 Poynette against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Poynette
Is Poynette a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Poynette ranks 8,375th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cheap car insurance, heat safety, and civic engagement, and lowest on property taxes and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Poynette expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $316,664. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $101,522 median income, cost of living beats 80% of towns.
Is Poynette safe?
Yes, Poynette is safer than 81% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $218 per resident a year.
Compare Poynette with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Poynette. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Poynette 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.
Poynette detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Poynette: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Poynette: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Poynette: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Poynette: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Poynette 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.