The 10 Cheapest Madison, WI Neighborhoods To Live In For 2025


The cheapest Madison neighborhoods are Heritage Heights and Bluff Acres for 2025 based on Saturday Night Science.

By: Chris Kolmar | About HomeSnacks
Last Updated: October 22, 2025
Worst Neighborhoods In Madison
Source: Wikipedia User Dori | GFDL

Everything else equal, we can all agree that living in a cheaper place is better than living in a more expensive place.

I’d much rather pay $500/mo in rent than $1,000. And I’d rather pay $2 for coffee than $5.

And while every neighbhorhood in Madison might be more expensive than living in rural Wisconsin, there are certain neighborhoods that are definitely cheaper.

What exactly are those Madison neighborhoods where your dollar goes a little further — you can get that one bedroom instead of the studio?

Instead of relying on public opinion and speculation, we wanted to get the facts straight and determine which neighborhoods in Madison are the cheapest using Saturday Night Science.

The Cheapest Neighborhoods In Madison For 2025

  1. Heritage Heights
  2. Bluff Acres
  3. Wexford
  4. Country Grove
  5. Glacier Ridge
  6. Sherman Village
  7. Rolling Meadows
  8. East Buckeye
  9. Elvehjem
  10. Moorland-Rimrock

What’s the cheapest neighborhood to live in Madison for 2025? According to the most recent census data, Heritage Heights looks to be the cheapest Madison neighborhood to live in.

At this point, we should make it clear that you do get what you pay for — some of these neighborhoods might not be the best places to live in Madison. You could be sacrificing location or crime rates for more space and cheaper groceries.

Read on to see how we determined the places around Madison that deserve a little bragging rights, or maybe you’re interested in the worst neighborhoods in Madison.

For more Wisconsin reading, check out:

Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table

The 10 Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Madison For 2025

1. Heritage Heights

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 2,180
Cost Of Living Index: 102 (30th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.6 (10th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.008 (5th cheapest)
More on Heritage Heights:

2. Bluff Acres

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 3,043
Cost Of Living Index: 101 (25th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.1 (34th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (17th cheapest)
More on Bluff Acres:

3. Wexford

Overall SnackAbility

9.5
/10

Population: 2,590
Cost Of Living Index: 106 (46th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 3.0 (29th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.006 (cheapest)
More on Wexford:

4. Country Grove

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 1,139
Cost Of Living Index: 112 (68th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.4 (6th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.008 (3rd cheapest)
More on Country Grove:

5. Glacier Ridge

Overall SnackAbility

9
/10

Population: 1,014
Cost Of Living Index: 112 (68th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 1.9 (2nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.01 (9th cheapest)
More on Glacier Ridge:

6. Sherman Village

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 2,390
Cost Of Living Index: 98 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.9 (23rd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.015 (48th cheapest)
More on Sherman Village:

7. Rolling Meadows

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 2,046
Cost Of Living Index: 103 (36th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.6 (12th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (33rd cheapest)
More on Rolling Meadows:

8. East Buckeye

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 506
Cost Of Living Index: 108 (50th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.6 (11th cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.012 (19th cheapest)
More on East Buckeye:

9. Elvehjem

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 3,357
Cost Of Living Index: 98 (8th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.9 (22nd cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.016 (5cheapest)
More on Elvehjem:

10. Moorland-Rimrock

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,155
Cost Of Living Index: 101 (25th cheapest)
Home Value To Income Ratio: 2.9 (2cheapest)
Rent To Income Ratio: 0.014 (37th cheapest)
More on Moorland-Rimrock:

Methodology: How We Determined The Cheapest Madison Hoods In 2025

To rank the cheapest places to live in Madison, we had to determine what criteria define “cheap” and then apply Saturday Night Science.

Using Census and extrapolated BLS data, we arrived at the following set of criteria:

  • Overall Cost Of Living
  • Rent To Income Ratio
  • Median Home Value To Income Ratio

We then ranked each neighborhood with scores from 1 to 96 in each category, where 1 was the cheapest.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each neighborhood to create a cheap neighborhood index.

And finally, we crowned the neighborhood with the lowest cheapest neighborhood index, the “Cheapest City Neighborhood In Madison.” We’re lookin’ at you, Heritage Heights.

We updated this article for 2025. This is our fourth time ranking the cheapest neighborhoods to live in Madison. Skip to the end to see the list of all the neighborhoods in the city, from cheapest to most expensive.

Summary: Lowest Cost Places To Live In Madison

If you’re measuring the neighborhoods in Madison where prices are low, and it’s cheap to live, this is an accurate list.

The most affordable neighborhoods in Madison are Heritage Heights, Bluff Acres, Wexford, Country Grove, Glacier Ridge, Sherman Village, Rolling Meadows, East Buckeye, Elvehjem, and Moorland-Rimrock.

As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in Madison aren’t all cheap. University Apartments takes the title of the most expensive neighborhood to live in Madison.

The most expensive neighborhoods in Madison are University Apartments, Vilas, Greenbush, Brittingham Apartments, and Bayview.

We ranked the neighborhoods from cheapest to most expensive in the chart below.

For more Wisconsin reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Cheapest Neighborhoods To Live In Madison For 2025

Rank Neighborhood Cost Of Living Index
1 Heritage Heights 102
2 Bluff Acres 101
3 Wexford 106
4 Country Grove 112
5 Glacier Ridge 112
6 Sherman Village 98
7 Rolling Meadows 103
8 East Buckeye 108
9 Elvehjem 98
10 Moorland-Rimrock 101
11 Nakoma League 115
12 Westchester Gardens 103
13 Glen Oak Hills 108
14 Summit Woods 112
15 Westhaven Trails 108
16 Stonefield Woods-Ridge 121
17 East Bluff 100
18 High Crossing 104
19 Emerson East 103
20 Meadowood 100
21 Lake Edge 104
22 Reston Heights 111
23 Berkley Oaks 100
24 Stone Meadows 114
25 Eastmorland 102
26 Skyview Meadows 108
27 Midvale Heights Community 112
28 Sherman 99
29 Parkwood Hills 117
30 Glendale 103
31 Indian Springs 102
32 Hawthorne 99
33 Sherman Terrace 93
34 Worthington Park 96
35 Oakbridge Community 110
36 Broadway-Lakepoint 103
37 Sunset Hills 121
38 Sauk Creek 115
39 Prairie Hills 99
40 Lake View Hill 99
41 Leopold 93
42 Spring Harbor 111
43 Westmorland 115
44 Hill Farms-University Neighborh 112
45 Whitetail Ridge 100
46 Schenk-Atwood 109
47 Tamarack Trails Community 114
48 Walnut Grove 114
49 Mcclellan Park 111
50 Schenk-Atwood-Starkweather-Yahar 109
51 Norman Acres 100
52 High Point Estates 110
53 Hawk’s Landing 133
54 Junction Ridge 127
55 Maple-Prairie 109
56 Highlands Community 121
57 Woodland Hills 121
58 Lerdahl Park 108
59 Carpenter-Ridgeway 100
60 Wisconsin Co-Op Housing 112
61 Faircrest 111
62 Eken Park 99
63 North Lake Mendota 109
64 Park Ridge 95
65 Greentree 105
66 Waunona 103
67 Old Middleton Greenway 115
68 Marbella 109
69 Bay Creek 110
70 Bram’s Addition 87
71 Clarendon Hills 100
72 Nobel Park 98
73 Vera Court 98
74 Dudgeon-Monroe 127
75 Sheridan Triangle 102
76 Brentwood Village 102
77 Burr Oaks 104
78 Heistand 104
79 Blackhawk 127
80 Allied Community 101
81 Capitol 94
82 Mayfair Park 101
83 Sunset Village 114
84 Vanchamasshe 121
85 Radio Park 121
86 Ridgewood 106
87 Orchard Ridge Community 108
88 Dunn’s Marsh 101
89 Marquette 115
90 Tenney-Lapham 113
91 Regent 133
92 Bayview 105
93 Brittingham Apartments 105
94 Greenbush 115
95 Vilas 120
96 University Apartments 123
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.

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