Best PlacesWausau, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Wausau metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime read low across the board, which puts the choice down to which part suits you. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Wausau ranks 77th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It earns the spot by being affordable and steady rather than flashy: everyday costs run well below the national average, and crime is low. The trade is cell coverage: the nearest large city and its jobs, flights, and culture are a drive away.
The best neighborhoods in the Wausau metro
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.
The best areas in Wausau
The towns and districts of the Wausau metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Kronenwetter & Hatley
Incomes run higher, local pay stretches further, and crime runs lower.
Rib Mountain
Biking is better, though it is noisier.
Mosinee
Advertised internet is slower and fewer households have young kids.
Weston
Scores close to Mosinee, except that schools score lower here.
Stratford, Spencer & Marshfield
Prices have run up less, though streets are more car-dependent.
Edgar
Fewer adults hold degrees and transit reaches fewer jobs.
Athens
More homes sit empty and commutes are longer.
Downtown Wausau
Tree cover is thinner.
Scores across Wausau run from about the 25th to the 90th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Wausau's strengths and weaknesses
Wausau ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Heat safety, cheap car insurance, and low disaster risk carry most of that.
The one real hole is cell coverage, near the bottom of the country. Distance from a big city and property taxes also cost it ground. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Wausau ranks high
- Heat safetyBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Healthcare accessBetter than 93% of metro areas
Where Wausau ranks low
- Cell coverageBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than only 16% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 31% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$1,055 a month, better than only 31% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Wausau
A household needs to earn about $64,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wausau home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,407, 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 Wausau's effective rate of 1.42%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Wausau
Wausau'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 Wausau.
Who works in Wausau, and how
Work in Wausau centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Wausau
Wausau has more parkland per resident than 98% of metro areas and more late-night spots per resident than 69% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Wausau and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Wausau growing, and who is moving in?
Wausau has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Portage County, WI.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Wausau go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Wausau, month by month
Wausau sees roughly 118 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 18° | 12° |
| April | 54° | 43° | 34° |
| July | 82° | 71° | 61° |
| October | 58° | 48° | 40° |
Flying in and out of Wausau
The nearest airport, Central Wisconsin, is about 13 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is General Mitchell International, about 164 miles away.
The best schools in and around Wausau
Schools across Wausau average a C+, better than 40% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Riverside ElementaryA · 68% proficient
- Rib Mountain ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
- Washington ElementaryB+ · 53% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mosinee MiddleB · 46% proficient
- John Muir MiddleB · 43% proficient
- Horace Mann MiddleC+ · 38% proficient
Top high schools
- Mosinee HighC+ · 38% proficient
- Marathon HighC+ · 37% proficient
- West HighC · 34% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wausau school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wausau 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 Wausau against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Wausau suits
Families
Schools land around the 40th percentile and crime safety beats 87%.
Retirees
The weather beats 72% of metro areas and health care access beats 93%.
Common questions about living in Wausau
Is Wausau a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wausau ranks 77th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on heat safety, cheap car insurance, and low disaster risk, and lowest on cell coverage and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wausau expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $224,473. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $82,407 median income, cost of living beats 68% of metro areas.
Is Wausau safe?
Yes, Wausau is safer than 87% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $255 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Wausau?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 26 with lows near 12. That works out to about 118 pleasant days a year, more than 72% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Wausau?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Kronenwetter & Hatley, Rib Mountain, and Mosinee. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Wausau good for families?
Schools beat 40% of metro areas, crime safety beats 87%, and childcare runs $1,055 a month.
Is Wausau good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 68% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 47% of metro areas. About 13% of workers already work from home.
Compare Wausau with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wausau. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wausau 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.
Wausau detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wausau: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wausau: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wausau: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wausau: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wausau 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.