Portage County

Portage County sits at a 3.43% cap rate and a gross rent-to-price ratio of 0.053, which places it squarely in appreciation territory rather than cash-flow territory. At a $320,281 median purchase price and $1,409 median rent, the math at today's financing rates is unambiguous: a 20% down purchase at 6.85% produces a monthly mortgage of $1,679, and after adding estimated expenses of $493, the all-in carry runs well past what rent covers. The model spits out negative $763 per month and a cash-on-cash return of -12.43%. That is not a rounding error; it is a structural feature of a market where prices have risen 9.46% year-over-year while rents have not kept pace. The appreciation score of 81 out of 100 confirms the market's identity: prices are moving, but the income is not there to service debt at current rates.

Given those numbers, Portage is not a market for a cash-flow buyer running a conventional leveraged strategy right now. The -12.43% cash-on-cash return effectively requires a buyer to accept monthly subsidization of the property in exchange for price appreciation. That trade can work for two types of investors: an appreciation buyer with patient capital who underwrites the 9.46% YoY price growth as the primary return driver, or a value-add operator who can force rents meaningfully above the $1,409 median through renovation or repositioning. A cash-flow buyer looking for day-one income should look elsewhere, full stop. The affordability index of 61 and the overall score of 60 out of 100 suggest the market is fairly priced relative to comparable mid-tier Wisconsin counties, but fairly priced does not mean cash-flow friendly when cap rates sit 250 to 300 basis points below the cost of debt.

The county seat is Stevens Point, home to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, which anchors a measurable portion of local rental demand. A university of that scale produces a recurring tenant pool of students, faculty, and university-adjacent staff that tends to stabilize occupancy even when broader economic conditions soften. Investors targeting properties within reasonable distance of campus can often capture that demand, though student-heavy units carry their own management considerations. The stability score of 50 reflects a market that is neither unusually resilient nor unusually fragile, consistent with a mid-sized college town that is not diversified into multiple major economic drivers.

Tax and insurance costs deserve serious attention at the underwrite stage. Wisconsin's state-average effective property tax rate is 1.85%, which the Tax Foundation flags as high, and Portage is no exception to that pattern. On a $320,281 purchase, that rate produces approximately $5,925 in annual property taxes, and combined with $737 in estimated annual insurance, the monthly tax-and-insurance load alone is $555. That figure is material: it represents nearly 40% of gross rent before a single dollar goes to mortgage principal, interest, or maintenance. At 1.85%, the property tax rate deserves its own line on your underwrite and a direct call to the county assessor's office before closing. The note in the data is worth repeating: 1.85% is a state-average estimate, and actual Portage County or township-level rates may differ, in either direction.

The primary risk in Portage is concentration. A county of 70,281 people anchored significantly by a single university has limited economic redundancy. If enrollment trends at UW-Stevens Point were to contract materially, rental demand in the sub-$1,500 segment would feel it quickly. The population base is also small enough that any single large employer decision, an expansion or a departure, moves the needle on vacancy in a way that would not register in a metro of 500,000. There is no vacancy or crime data provided here to quantify those risks further, but the concentration dynamic is a real structural consideration that a stability score of 50 already hints at.

Compared to its neighbors, Portage's rent-to-price ratio of 0.053 is the highest in the peer group: Winnebago is at 0.047, Outagamie at 0.046, Dodge at 0.045, Fond du Lac at 0.044, and Marathon at 0.043. That means Portage actually generates more rent per dollar of purchase price than any of the five comparable counties, which is somewhat counterintuitive given the negative cash flow. The problem is that even the best ratio in the group is not sufficient to clear the debt-service hurdle at 6.85%. If rates compress by 150 to 200 basis points, Portage is the first county in this peer set where the math starts to work, which makes it an interesting rate-sensitive bet for an appreciation buyer willing to refinance into a better environment later. An investor who needs cash flow today should look at Marathon County ($257,325 median, lower absolute carry) or Winnebago ($286,400), accepting weaker appreciation prospects in exchange for lower negative leverage.