Best PlacesWauwatosa, WI Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Wauwatosa, 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.
Wauwatosa ranks 126th of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on transit by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Wauwatosa
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 Wauwatosa
The parts of Wauwatosa, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first.
Tosa East Towne
Quarry Heights, Wellaur Park & Tosa Village
Tosa Heights
Glenview Heights & Bluemound Manor
Fisher Woods & Mayfair Park
Timmerman West
Scores across Wauwatosa run from about the 18th to the 100th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Wauwatosa's strengths and weaknesses
Where Wauwatosa ranks high
- TransitBetter than 99% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than 95% of cities
- Disaster safetyBetter than 95% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than 94% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 94% of cities
Where Wauwatosa ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 7% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 15% of cities
- Cheap childcare$1,303 a month, better than only 31% of cities
- Air qualityBetter than only 38% of cities
- State infrastructureBetter than only 45% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Wauwatosa
A household needs to earn about $102,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Wauwatosa home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $107,435, 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 Wauwatosa's effective rate of 1.67%, 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 Wauwatosa
Wauwatosa'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 Wauwatosa.
Who works in Wauwatosa, and how
Work in Wauwatosa centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 72%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Wauwatosa
Wauwatosa has more restaurants and bars per resident than 82% of cities and more parkland per resident than 98% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Wauwatosa and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Wauwatosa, month by month
Wauwatosa sees roughly 97 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 82 degrees. January highs sit near 30, with lows near 18. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 30° | 24° | 18° |
| April | 55° | 45° | 36° |
| July | 82° | 72° | 63° |
| October | 61° | 51° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Wauwatosa
General Mitchell International sits about 10 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 2.9 million passengers in 2025, with 66 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Wauwatosa
Schools across Wauwatosa average a B+, better than 71% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Wauwatosa StemA+ · 82% proficient
- Lincoln ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
- Roosevelt ElementaryA · 68% proficient
Top middle schools
- Longfellow MiddleB+ · 52% proficient
- Whitman MiddleB · 44% proficient
- Lane IntermediateC− · 29% proficient
Top high schools
- East HighB+ · 54% proficient
- West HighC+ · 37% proficient
- Nathan Hale HighD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Wauwatosa school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Wauwatosa 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 Wauwatosa against the other 2,097 cities.
Who Wauwatosa suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 78% of cities, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 22% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 58% of cities and health care access beats 94%.
Common questions about living in Wauwatosa
Is Wauwatosa a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Wauwatosa ranks 126th of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on transit, heat safety, and low disaster risk, and lowest on noise and property taxes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Wauwatosa expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $350,015. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $107,435 median income, cost of living beats 78% of cities.
Is Wauwatosa safe?
Yes, Wauwatosa is safer than 55% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $297 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Wauwatosa?
July highs average about 82 degrees, and January highs near 30 with lows near 18. That works out to about 97 pleasant days a year, more than 58% of cities.
What are the best neighborhoods in Wauwatosa?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Tosa East Towne, Quarry Heights, Wellaur Park & Tosa Village, and Tosa Heights. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Wauwatosa with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Wauwatosa. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Wauwatosa 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.
Wauwatosa detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Wauwatosa: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Wauwatosa: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Wauwatosa: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Wauwatosa: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Wauwatosa 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.