Best PlacesPrentice, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Prentice, 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.
Prentice ranks 27,656th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Empty homes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on low disaster risk.
The best neighborhoods in Prentice
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.
Prentice's strengths and weaknesses
Where Prentice ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 89% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 85% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 84% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than 78% of towns
Where Prentice ranks low
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 13% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 27% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 27% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 28% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Prentice
A household needs to earn about $39,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Prentice home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $60,929, 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 Prentice's effective rate of 1.06%, 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 Prentice
Prentice 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 Prentice.
Who works in Prentice, and how
Work in Prentice centers on manufacturing and hospitality & food. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in Prentice
Prentice has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Prentice and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Prentice, month by month
Prentice 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 Prentice
The nearest airport, Rhinelander/Oneida County, is about 41 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 150 miles away.
The best schools in and around Prentice
Schools across Prentice average a C, better than 38% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Prentice ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
- Phillips ElementaryC+ · 38% proficient
Top middle schools
- Prentice MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
- Phillips MiddleC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Phillips HighC− · 27% proficient
- Prentice HighD · 21% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Prentice school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Prentice 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 Prentice against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Prentice
Is Prentice a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Prentice ranks 27,656th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low disaster risk, cheap car insurance, and walkability, and lowest on empty homes 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 Prentice expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $143,646. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $60,929 median income, cost of living beats 30% of towns.
Is Prentice safe?
Yes, Prentice is safer than 59% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $281 per resident a year.
Compare Prentice with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Prentice. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Prentice 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.
Prentice detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Prentice: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Prentice: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Prentice: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Prentice: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Prentice 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.