Ozaukee County

Ozaukee County sits firmly on the appreciation end of the spectrum, and the numbers make that unambiguous. At a median home price of $508,113 and median rent of $1,866, the gross rent-to-price ratio comes in at 0.044, which is thin by any cash-flow standard. The cap rate pencils at 2.87%, and when you layer in a 20% down payment at 6.85% interest, the modeled monthly mortgage alone hits $2,664 against estimated gross rent of $1,866. That gap, combined with $653 in monthly expenses, produces a cash-on-cash return of negative 14.89% and a monthly cash flow of negative $1,450. Year-over-year home price appreciation of 6.52% is the only metric doing real work here, and it scores 91 out of 100 nationally on that dimension. This is an appreciation market first, cash-flow negative second, and investors who underwrite it otherwise will be disappointed quickly.

The profile fits one type of buyer: someone purchasing for long-term equity accumulation and willing to fund negative carry out of pocket while the asset appreciates. The 6.52% annual price gain, if it continues, works out to roughly $33,000 per year in equity on a $508,000 asset, which can justify the monthly deficit for a patient investor with sufficient reserves. A cash-flow buyer has no business here at current prices. A value-add operator faces the same arithmetic: even if you buy distressed and force appreciation, you're entering a market with a 2.87% cap rate ceiling, meaning your exit buyer will also be paying for appreciation, not yield. The affordability index of 27 and affordability score of 27 out of 100 confirm that tenants face real affordability pressure at the prevailing rent level, which limits how far rents can be pushed and makes vacancy risk non-trivial even if the data doesn't specify a vacancy rate.

The county's position in the Milwaukee metro corridor is its primary economic narrative. Ozaukee sits on Lake Michigan's western shore directly north of Milwaukee, and its rental demand is substantially driven by professional households seeking suburban density with Milwaukee employment access. That commuter dynamic supports occupancy in a way that a purely rural county cannot claim, and it explains why a market with a 0.044 rent-to-price ratio still attracts buyers at scale. The population of 91,745 is small enough that deal flow is limited, which matters for operators trying to build a portfolio rather than acquire one or two properties.

The tax and insurance picture is a material underwriting item. Wisconsin's state-average effective property tax rate of 1.85%, flagged as high, translates to roughly $9,400 per year in property tax on a $508,000 purchase. Combined with $1,169 in annual insurance, the monthly tax-and-insurance load runs $881. That figure alone is 47% of gross rent. To be direct: at $881 per month in tax and insurance before you touch debt service, maintenance, management, or vacancy, the income side of this asset cannot carry its own costs at current rent levels. The 1.85% is a state-average estimate per Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual Ozaukee county and township rates may differ, but investors should pull the county assessor's effective rate for any specific address before closing, because even a modest deviation from the state average moves the monthly carry meaningfully.

The county ranks 575th out of 1,000 nationally, sitting at the 27th percentile overall, and 61st out of 72 counties in Wisconsin. That Wisconsin ranking is telling: most of the state's county markets score better on an overall investment basis, largely because lower-priced markets elsewhere in the state produce better rent-to-price ratios. The risk that deserves attention here is concentration: a market this small, this expensive, and this dependent on a single metro's employment base is exposed to any meaningful pullback in Milwaukee-area professional employment. If that demand driver softens, absorption of new rental supply or re-let inventory will slow, and the appreciation thesis is the first thing to reprice.

Among the neighbors in the data, La Crosse County and Eau Claire County both offer meaningfully better rent-to-price ratios, at 0.049 and 0.045 respectively, against median prices of $315,000 and $309,000. Those markets score 54 overall versus Ozaukee's 51, and their lower entry prices reduce the absolute dollar exposure per door while improving cash-flow prospects. Waukesha County, closer in price at $475,000, carries a weaker rent-to-price ratio of 0.040, making it a worse cash-flow option than even Ozaukee, though it scores 55 overall. Choose Ozaukee over its neighbors only if your thesis is specifically tied to the Milwaukee northern-suburbs appreciation corridor and you have the balance sheet to fund negative carry for a multi-year hold. If your mandate is to minimize monthly bleed or build a cash-flowing portfolio, La Crosse or Eau Claire are the more functional starting points in this state.