Best PlacesSister Bay, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Sister Bay, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Sister Bay ranks 20,870th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Sister Bay
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.
Sister Bay's strengths and weaknesses
Where Sister Bay ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute14.4 minutes each way, better than 98% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than 97% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of towns
Where Sister Bay ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 13% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than only 25% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Sister Bay
A household needs to earn about $104,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Sister Bay home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $75,014, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Sister Bay's effective rate of 0.85%, 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 Sister Bay
Sister Bay 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 Sister Bay.
Who works in Sister Bay, and how
Work in Sister Bay centers on hospitality & food and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 21%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Sister Bay
Sister Bay has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Sister Bay and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Sister Bay, month by month
Sister Bay sees roughly 107 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 81 degrees. January highs sit near 29, with lows near 14. The comfortable stretch runs June through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 29° | 21° | 14° |
| April | 51° | 41° | 32° |
| July | 81° | 70° | 59° |
| October | 59° | 49° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Sister Bay
The nearest airport, Delta County, is about 37 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 159 miles away.
The best schools in and around Sister Bay
Schools across Sister Bay average a B+, better than 75% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Gibraltar ElementaryA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Gibraltar MiddleA− · 53% proficient
Top high schools
- Gibraltar HighB− · 43% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Sister Bay school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Sister Bay 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 Sister Bay against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Sister Bay
Is Sister Bay a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Sister Bay ranks 20,870th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, cheap car insurance, and short commutes, and lowest on an overheated housing market and crime. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Sister Bay expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $395,830. The overall cost of living runs about 8% above the national average. Set against a $75,014 median income, cost of living beats 35% of towns.
Is Sister Bay safe?
Sister Bay is safer than 5% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $857 per resident a year.
Compare Sister Bay with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Sister Bay. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Sister Bay 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.
Sister Bay detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Sister Bay: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Sister Bay: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Sister Bay: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Sister Bay: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Sister Bay 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.