Best PlacesWacker, IL Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wacker, 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.
Wacker ranks 47,801st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. The schools pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in Wacker
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.
Wacker's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wacker ranks high
- State infrastructureBetter than 77% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 74% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 69% of towns
- Cheap childcare$704 a month, better than 64% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 54% of towns
Where Wacker ranks low
- School gradeD−, better than only 3% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 3% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 4% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 11% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 13% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Wacker
A household needs to earn about $45,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wacker home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $59,464, 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 Wacker's effective rate of 1.40%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wacker
Wacker 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 Wacker.
Who works in Wacker, and how
Work in Wacker centers on transportation & warehousing and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 81%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 11%
Life in Wacker
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Wacker.
What the weather is like in Wacker, month by month
Wacker sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 31, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 31° | 23° | 17° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 38° |
| July | 84° | 74° | 64° |
| October | 64° | 52° | 44° |
Flying in and out of Wacker
The nearest airport, Dubuque Regional, is about 42 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Chicago O'Hare International, about 111 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wacker
Schools across Wacker average a D−, better than 3% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- West Carroll PrimaryD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- West Carroll Middle SchoolD− · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- West Carroll High SchoolF · 11% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wacker school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wacker 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 Wacker against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Wacker
Is Wacker a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wacker ranks 47,801st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on state infrastructure, cheap car insurance, and big-city access, and lowest on the schools and taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wacker expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $159,800. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $59,464 median income, cost of living beats 41% of towns.
Is Wacker safe?
Wacker is safer than 15% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $359 per resident a year.
Compare Wacker with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wacker. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wacker 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.
Wacker detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wacker: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wacker: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wacker: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wacker: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wacker 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.