Appleton vs La Crosse
Metro-area medians — Appleton, WI Metro Area vs La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN Metro Area — not the cities proper.
La Crosse comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 8 clearly-decided measures.
Appleton and La Crosse cost about the same to live in, but Appleton households earn about 10% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Appleton.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, La Crosse leaves you about $448/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Appleton for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
Choose La Crosse for
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Average commute
Appleton vs La Crosse — frequently asked
- Is Appleton cheaper than La Crosse?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Appleton and La Crosse metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Appleton or La Crosse?
- Appleton has the higher median household income — $82,501 versus $75,117 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 10% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Appleton or La Crosse?
- A paycheck stretches further in Appleton. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $89,268 there versus $81,854 in La Crosse.
- Which has cheaper rent, Appleton or La Crosse?
- La Crosse has cheaper rent — a median of $1,087/mo versus $1,164/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).