Thanks to the survey, the responses to these questions are your neighbor's, and your own. When coupled with the results of our survey, the numbers settle into rankings. The numbers do tell an interesting story. Lots of them, in fact. Maple Bluff is a splendid residential village of tree-bowered streets and stately homes, yet high taxes and home costs conspired with lagging school scores to land it at the bottom of the list.
Homes are inexpensive in Cambridge, too, but tougher to re-sell.
Only homes in Maple Bluff stay on the market longer. And homes are a good investment in Monona, where their value is appreciating the fastest. Cross Plains came in with the top overall school score, edging Middleton on elementary and middle school test results. But when we looked only at test scores, Shorewood Hills bested Cross Plains. Schools in McFarland, Oregon and Mount Horeb were ranked in the top 10, too, while Verona, Sun Prairie and Cottage Grove schools received slightly below average ratings.