Hudson Area Towns Graded From A+ To D-: How Did Your Community Do?

HUDSON, WI — This is one heck of a report card. And you may want to think twice about living in a place that was graded below average.

Niche has come out with its new 2017 rankings of the "Best Places to Live" in Wisconsin, but it took a bit of a unique approach: The consumer rankings service assigned a grade, on an A+-to-D- scale, to almost every town in the state.
Only 1 municipality in the Hudson area received an A+ grade , topped with Hudson itself.

To arrive at the rankings, Niche.com took several factors into consideration, such as the quality of local schools, crime rates, housing trends, employment statistics and access to amenities.

Niche created a standardized score for each factor, and after weighting each factor, an overall score was calculated, which was again given a new standardized score.

Finally, Niche.com created a numerical ranking and assigned grades for each place. Click here to read more about the methodology.

Here are the Wisconsin municipalities in the Greater Hudson Area, and how they were graded. Full list here:

1. A + Hudson
   • Town in Wisconsin
   • 19 reviews
   • DENSITYSuburban
   • RESIDENTS13,194
2. A Stillwater
   • Suburb of Minneapolis, MN
   • 28 reviews
   • DENSITYSuburban
   • RESIDENTS18,677
3. A Troy
   • Town in Wisconsin
   • 17 reviews
   • DENSITYRural
   • RESIDENTS4,876
4. A North Hudson
   • Town in Wisconsin
   • 1 review
   • DENSITYSuburban
   • RESIDENTS3,807
5. A Lake Elmo
   • Suburb of Minneapolis, MN
   • 38 reviews
   • DENSITYSuburban
   • RESIDENTS8,199
6. A Baytown Township
   • Suburb of Minneapolis, MN
   • DENSITYRural
   • RESIDENTS1,657
7. A River Falls
   • Town in Wisconsin
   • 18 reviews
   • DENSITYSuburban
   • RESIDENTS15,103
8. A St. Joseph
   • Town in Wisconsin
   • 2 reviews
   • DENSITYRural
   • RESIDENTS3,911
9. A- Lakeland Shores
   • Town in Minnesota
   • DENSITYSuburban
   • RESIDENTS304
10. A- Lakeland
    • Town in Minnesota
    • DENSITYSuburban
    • RESIDENTS1,741
11. A- Afton
    • Suburb of Minneapolis, MN
    • 4 reviews
    • DENSITYRural
    • RESIDENTS2,932
12. A- Oak Park Heights
    • Suburb of Minneapolis, MN
    • 3 reviews
    • DENSITYSuburban
    • RESIDENTS4,737
13. A- Lake St. Croix Beach
    • Town in Minnesota
    • DENSITYSuburban
    • RESIDENTS1,135
14. A- Bayport
    • Suburb of Minneapolis, MN
    • DENSITYSuburban
    • RESIDENTS3,648
15. B+ Warren
    • Town in Wisconsin
    • 2 reviews
    • DENSITYRural
    • RESIDENTS1,767
16. B+ Kinnickinnic
    • Town in Wisconsin
    • 9 reviews
    • DENSITYRural
    • RESIDENTS1,734
17. B Houlton
    • Suburb in Wisconsin
    • 2 reviews
    • DENSITYSuburban
    • RESIDENTS352
18. B Roberts
    • Town in Wisconsin
    • 1 review
    • DENSITYSuburban
    • RESIDENTS1,645
19. B St. Marys Point
    • Town in Minnesota
    • DENSITYSuburban
    • RESIDENTS351
20. No Grade Hudson Town
    • Town in Wisconsin
    • 11 reviews
    • DENSITYSuburban
    • RESIDENTS8,674
21. No Grade Stillwater Township
    • Suburb of Minneapolis, MN
    • 13 reviews
    • DENSITYRural
    • RESIDENTS2,319
22. No Grade West Lakeland Township
    • Suburb of Minneapolis, MN
    • 9 reviews
    • DENSITYSuburban
    • RESIDENTS4,133

patch file photo

tom davis contributed to this report