Juneau County

Juneau County scores 75 overall and ranks 1st out of 72 Wisconsin counties and 53rd out of 1,000 nationally, placing it in the 93rd national percentile. That's a headline number, but investors need to understand exactly what's driving it. The appreciation score of 95 is the engine here: median home prices sit at $263,380, up 7.87% year-over-year, which is the kind of price velocity that drives total-return rankings. The cash flow score, however, is 0, and that is not a rounding artifact. The data provides no cap rate, no estimated net operating income, and no cash-on-cash return, which tells the same story the price-to-rent and expense structure would: this is not a county you underwrite for day-one positive cash flow. With a 20% down payment of $52,676 and a 6.85% rate, the debt service alone is meaningful before you layer on operating costs. The affordability index of 74 out of 100 suggests the market is not deeply stretched for owner-occupants, but that number doesn't solve the spread between rents and acquisition costs for an investor.

The investor profile this market fits is narrow but well-defined: an appreciation-oriented buyer who can carry negative or break-even cash flow and who believes the 7.87% annual price growth is durable, or a second-home and short-term rental operator targeting Wisconsin's recreational markets. Juneau County is home to the Wisconsin Dells tourism corridor, and that geographic reality matters more to an investor's thesis here than any median price statistic. A traditional long-term buy-and-hold investor looking for a 6% or better cap rate and positive monthly cash flow should not be underwriting Juneau at these numbers. The stability score of 50 further reinforces that: this is a market with meaningful upside and meaningful volatility, not a steady-eddy workforce-housing play.

No economic anchors data was provided in the inputs, so the analysis cannot name specific employers or characterize the local job base beyond what the other metrics imply. The population of 26,695 is small, which concentrates rental demand in a thin tenant pool. For a long-term residential rental operator, that means vacancy risk is real when individual properties turn, and absorption of new supply is slow. Small-county dynamics punish operators who buy wrong-sized or wrong-located product.

The tax and insurance carry deserves direct attention. At a state-average effective property tax rate of 1.85%, Wisconsin's burden is high enough to deserve its own line on every underwrite, and the data flags it explicitly as such. On a $263,380 purchase, that translates to approximately $4,873 in annual property tax and $606 in annual insurance, combining for $457 per month in tax-and-insurance carry before mortgage, maintenance, management, or vacancy reserves. That $457 figure is a floor, not a ceiling: county and township rates in Wisconsin vary materially from the state average, and the rate cited here is a state-average estimate per Tax Foundation 2024 data. Investors should pull the actual Juneau County mill rate before finalizing any underwrite. In a market where the cash flow score is already at zero, a tax burden at this level has real binary significance: it either confirms why the deal doesn't pencil or forces the investor to rely entirely on rent levels that the data doesn't document.

The small-market concentration risk is the primary structural concern. With a population under 27,000 and an economy that appears oriented toward tourism and recreation, rental demand is likely seasonal and tied to discretionary visitor spending. A short-term rental operator is directly exposed to shifts in tourism patterns, platform regulation, or regional competition from other Wisconsin Dells-adjacent markets. A long-term residential operator faces thin demand and limited exit liquidity: a $263,380 home in a county this size has a smaller buyer pool than the same price point in a metro-adjacent suburb, which extends hold periods and compresses IRR on exit.

Compared to its neighbors, Juneau commands a modest price premium, sitting at $263,380 versus Marquette County at $257,231, Shawano at $258,748, Trempealeau at $279,244, Clark at $211,676, and Marinette at $205,028. Juneau's overall score of 75 leads all five neighbors, all of which score between 72 and 74. Clark and Marinette offer substantially lower entry prices, by $50,000 to $58,000, and an investor who prioritizes acquisition cost and potential cash-flow improvement should stress-test those markets first. The premium you pay for Juneau over a Clark or Marinette County property is implicitly a bet on the appreciation trajectory and the tourism demand thesis: if those two things hold, Juneau justifies the spread. If you're skeptical of either, Clark at $211,676 median gives you more margin of safety on the purchase price, even at a lower overall score.