Best PlacesSauk City, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sauk City, 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.
Sauk City ranks 3,626th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and property taxes are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sauk City
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.
Sauk City's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sauk City ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of towns
- BikingBetter than 97% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 95% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 89% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 88% of towns
Where Sauk City ranks low
- Low property taxBetter than only 12% of towns
- Cheap childcare$1,102 a month, better than only 16% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 30% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 32% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 38% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sauk City
A household needs to earn about $92,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sauk City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $104,304, 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 Sauk City's effective rate of 1.43%, 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 Sauk City
Sauk City'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 Sauk City.
Who works in Sauk City, and how
Work in Sauk City centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 82%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Sauk City
Sauk City has more restaurants and bars per resident than 87% of towns and more parkland per resident than 98% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Sauk City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sauk City, month by month
Sauk City sees roughly 80 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 Sauk City
The nearest airport, Dane County Regional/Truax Field, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 96 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sauk City
Schools across Sauk City average a B−, better than 59% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Tower Rock ElementaryB · 50% proficient
- River Valley ElementaryB · 47% proficient
Top middle schools
- Wisconsin Heights MiddleB− · 42% proficient
- Sauk Prairie MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
- River Valley MiddleC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- River Valley HighC+ · 40% proficient
- Wisconsin Heights HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Sauk Prairie HighC · 34% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sauk City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sauk City 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 Sauk City against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sauk City
Is Sauk City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sauk City ranks 3,626th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, biking, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on property taxes and childcare costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sauk City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $324,746. The overall cost of living runs about 2% below the national average. Set against a $104,304 median income, cost of living beats 84% of towns.
Is Sauk City safe?
Yes, Sauk City is safer than 72% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $263 per resident a year.
Compare Sauk City with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sauk City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sauk City 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.
Sauk City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sauk City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sauk City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sauk City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sauk City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sauk City 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.