I have quite a few relatives that live in the Middleton WI area, and visited a lot when I was a child. My uncle had a farm there and was on the school board for years. It's now a "suburb" of Madison, the state capitol and home of UW. I would imagine it's hard to tell when you've crossed the border today. But there are a lot of little town-suburbs in the area. I would think the schools are top-notch.

Also, many small rural towns nearby that offer quiet things for tourists are within an hours drive: Little Norway at Mt. Horeb, House on the Rock and Taliesin and outdoor Shakespeare theater company (can't remember the name) near Spring Green. and Wisconsin Dells, although that's not really quiet.

Anyway, I know lots about Middleton, next to nothing about Schererville, even though I live in Indiana. My uninformed impression isn't that good, though, probably because, unfairly, I associate its name with something unpleasant in the past.

Schererville is among the safe, comfortable NW Indiana cities. I would put Munster ahead of it, however, as it is an older town (fewer crackerbox neighborhoods), is a bit closer to the jobs in IL, and Munster High, by all objective data, is a better school than Lake Central. LC grads please feel free to correct me.

Odd, I'm only familiar with two of the locations in the top 20, but neither of them stand up well against nearby towns, IMO.

Horsham, PA is a Philadelphia suburb crammed in next to the PA turnpike. It certainly wouldn't be my first choice in the Philadelphia area.

Apex, NC is a small town in the process of being swallowed by suburban sprawl from Raleigh. The main employers are in RTP to the north and west, but the commute is unpleasant and getting worse. Traffic is much better for people commuting to RTP from the west, and those people have easier access to Chapel Hill and Durham (with their universities and associated culture).