Best PlacesTurtle Lake, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Turtle 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.
Turtle Lake ranks 17,521st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and an overheated housing market is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Turtle 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.
Turtle Lake's strengths and weaknesses
Where Turtle Lake ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 93% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 90% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 88% of towns
- BikingBetter than 87% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 82% of towns
Where Turtle Lake ranks low
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 25% of towns
- Cheap childcare$924 a month, better than only 33% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 33% of towns
- School gradeC, better than only 38% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Turtle Lake
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Turtle Lake home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,311, 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 Turtle Lake's effective rate of 1.10%, 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 Turtle Lake
Turtle Lake 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 Turtle Lake.
Who works in Turtle Lake, and how
Work in Turtle 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 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Turtle Lake
Turtle Lake has more restaurants and bars per resident than 92% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Turtle Lake and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Turtle Lake, month by month
Turtle Lake sees roughly 91 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 79 degrees. January highs sit near 23, with lows near 9. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 23° | 16° | 9° |
| April | 52° | 41° | 33° |
| July | 79° | 69° | 59° |
| October | 56° | 46° | 39° |
Flying in and out of Turtle Lake
The nearest airport, Chippewa Valley Regional, is about 49 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain, about 64 miles away.
The best schools in and around Turtle Lake
Schools across Turtle Lake average a C, better than 38% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Amery IntermediateB · 49% proficient
- Turtle Lake ElementaryB− · 43% proficient
- Cumberland ElementaryB− · 42% proficient
Top middle schools
- Amery MiddleB+ · 51% proficient
- Unity MiddleB− · 42% proficient
- Turtle Lake MiddleC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Cumberland HighC− · 28% proficient
- Luck HighC− · 27% proficient
- Amery HighD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Turtle Lake school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Turtle 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 Turtle Lake against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Turtle Lake
Is Turtle Lake a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Turtle Lake ranks 17,521st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on walkability, fast internet, and cheap car insurance, and lowest on an overheated housing market and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Turtle Lake expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $211,250. The overall cost of living runs about 7% below the national average. Set against a $69,311 median income, cost of living beats 43% of towns.
Is Turtle Lake safe?
Yes, Turtle Lake is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $280 per resident a year.
Compare Turtle Lake with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Turtle Lake. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Turtle 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.
Turtle Lake detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Turtle Lake: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Turtle Lake: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Turtle Lake: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Turtle Lake: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Turtle 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.