Best PlacesRice Lake, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Rice 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.
Rice Lake ranks 14,421st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on short commutes by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Rice 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.
Rice Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Rice Lake ranks high
- Short commute15.0 minutes each way, better than 97% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 95% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 91% of towns
- BikingBetter than 90% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 89% of towns
Where Rice Lake ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 24% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 26% of towns
- Cheap childcare$948 a month, better than only 30% of towns
- Household income$64,749 median, better than only 36% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Rice Lake
A household needs to earn about $63,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rice Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $64,749, 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 Rice Lake's effective rate of 1.41%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Rice Lake
Rice Lake'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 Rice Lake.
Who works in Rice Lake, and how
Work in Rice Lake centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Rice Lake
Rice Lake has more restaurants and bars per resident than 84% of towns and more parkland per resident than 96% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Rice Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Rice Lake, month by month
Rice Lake sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 25, with lows near 10. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 25° | 17° | 10° |
| April | 54° | 42° | 33° |
| July | 81° | 70° | 59° |
| October | 58° | 47° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Rice Lake
The nearest airport, Chippewa Valley Regional, is about 46 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 84 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rice Lake
Schools across Rice Lake average a C+, better than 52% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Chetek-weyerhaeuser Roselawn ElementaryB · 48% proficient
- Cameron ElementaryB · 47% proficient
- Hilltop ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Chetek-weyerhaeuser MiddleB+ · 48% proficient
- Rice Lake MiddleB · 47% proficient
- Cameron MiddleB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Cameron HighC · 33% proficient
- Cumberland HighC− · 28% proficient
- Rice Lake HighC− · 27% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rice Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rice 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 Rice Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Rice Lake
Is Rice Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rice Lake ranks 14,421st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on short commutes, walkability, and cheap car insurance, 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 Rice Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $222,458. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $64,749 median income, cost of living beats 38% of towns.
Is Rice Lake safe?
Yes, Rice Lake is safer than 65% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $270 per resident a year.
Compare Rice Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rice Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rice 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.
Rice Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rice Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rice Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rice Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rice Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rice 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.