The 10 Worst Madison Suburbs

The 10 Worst Madison Suburbs To Live For 2024

We’ll get the ball rolling with Waterloo, the absolute worst place to live around Madison according to the data.

And in the world of worst rankings, Waterloo beat the competition pretty handily thanks to scoring in the bottom 15% in three major categories. Income is the 2nd worst in the Madison area, and to make matters worse, the city ranks 3rd worst when it comes to home values.

But hey, at least it’s cheap to live there. But there’s a reason for that… it’s Waterloo.

You won’t feel bad about not having a great income for the area. There aren’t a bunch of places to spend your money anyway.

Welcome to Edgerton. Home to KMart, Big Lots, and a lot of gas stations.

This city is 25.0 miles to Madison. Income levels here are the 6th lowest in the metro area, where families bring in about $80,255 a year, which only goes so far even on a shoestring budget.

But on the bright side, there are a lot of fast food joints in the area.

Back up the highway we go for the third worst Madison suburb you can live in. You might have expected to see Marshall on here. While the cost of living is low, your entertainment and work options are limited. And that’s an understatement.

In terms of numbers, it’s in the worst 15% for insurance, and the adult high school dropout rate is poor compared to other Madison suburbs.

But at least there are lovely parks to bring the kids during the day.

If you live in Columbus, most likely you struggle to make ends meet every month. It ranks as the lowest Madison suburb for median household incomes.

Not only that, but this is the 14th worst unemployed suburb you can live in if you choose to live near Madison. Remember, we looked at 26 cities for this study.

Columbus is about 26.4 miles to downtown.

New Glarus has the distinction of being a Madison suburb. Which means that’s about all it has going for it.

All snarkiness aside, New Glarus has the 4th lowest home values in the metro Madison area, where the median price is $294,949. The median income is $132,305.

New Glarus has an unemployment rate of 5.6% which ranks worst.

Fitchburg has 29,826 residents that probably know it’s a pretty crummy place to live when you look at the data. (Or, if you’ve ever been there, you don’t need to look at the data.)

Incomes are towards the bottom, and the poverty rate sits at 8.984064433613328%.

Ah, Stoughton. You rank as the 7th worst place to live around Madison.

It’s the place with the 8th most out of work residents in the Madison metro area (2.44%).

Deerfield is a city about 18.0 miles from Madison, but Madison probably wishes it was further away. It ranks as the 8th worst burb for 2018.

You’d be hard-pressed to find a worse place to live. Deerfield has the 7th most uninsured people, 8th worst incomes, and has the 11th highest unemployment rate (2.21%) in the entire Madison metro area.

Homes only cost $361,358 for a reason. That’s cheap for Madison standards.

If you absolutely have to live near Madison, then DeForest might be a place for you to consider as it’s only the 9th worst Madison suburb.

About 2.17% of residents are out of work.

Rounding out the ten worst Madison suburbs to call home is Belleville.

Located 16.4 miles outside the city, Bellevilles is a real pit when you look at the data. Its residents have the 10th highest unemployment rate (2.27%), and poverty is far above the area average.