Counties / Wisconsin / Door County

Door County, WI

FIPS 55029 · population 30,445 · outside every metro area

$439k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$439k
▲ 1.3% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$1,086
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,141
the Section 8 payment standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+80.2%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+1.3%FHFA HPI2025+2.6%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$343k
Surveyed gross rent$1,086
Rent burden 30%+43.8%
Median year built1983
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
38.7%vacant
24,436estimated housing units
Occupied tenure21.8% renter
owner 78.2%renter 21.8%
Structure mix76.8% single-family
Single-family 76.8%20+ units 2.9%Mobile home 5.7%Other 14.7%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs14,335▲ 0.8% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments1,459annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$924▲ 5.4% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorLeisure and hospitality25.8% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.8%WEEKLY WAGE+5.4%Leisure and hospitality25.8%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Door County’s tension is a high county value base with no published market rent and mixed price evidence, so income-focused buyers should be cautious while asset-specific investigators test rent and flood exposure. Zillow reported a $438,842 median home value in 2026-06, 1.29% higher year over year. FHFA’s repeat-transaction HPI, separately labeled annual 2025 data, rose 2.61%. It is an appreciation index rather than a home value; the methods and vintages should not be merged into a single growth rate.

02Housing economics

Housing-income underwriting cannot be completed because market rent is not published. HUD’s $1,141 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an estimate of asking rent, so gross yield cannot be calculated. The reported effective property-tax rate is 1.02%, requiring parcel-level tax-bill review alongside any rent evidence. In Realtor.com’s 2026-06 MLS data, median listing price was up 10.66%, active listings rose 27.33%, median marketing time was 40 days, and 8.87% of listings had price reductions. These are asking-price, visible-supply, marketing-time, and seller-concession measures—not closed-sale prices or proof of buyer demand.

03Demand & competition

Demand evidence is segmented rather than uniformly positive. QCEW’s 2025 county workplace data showed gains in covered employment and covered-worker wages; Leisure and hospitality was the largest disclosed private supersector. This is not resident employment or an unemployment measure. Tax-return movers numbered 798 inbound and 855 outbound, while inbound movers’ average AGI exceeded outbound movers’ by $38,283. Investor purchasers represented 40 of 475 purchase mortgages, or 8.42%, indicating a present but minority non-owner-occupant financing channel rather than evidence of broad investor control.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is the dominant hazard. Modeled annual climate loss equals 0.06% of building value, a county-level estimate that needs flood-zone, elevation, insurance-pricing, and claims review rather than treatment as a parcel loss. The record does not publish market rent, vacancy, lease terms, closed-sale comparables, flood-insurance quotes, or parcel tax assessments. Missing rent prevents gross-yield and operating-income conclusions; the remaining omissions prevent precise valuation, carrying-cost, liquidity, and hazard underwriting.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Door County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Sturgeon Bay city9.8KSister Bay village1KForestville village558Ephraim village412Baileys Harbor CDP386Egg Harbor village343Ellison Bay CDP186Little Sturgeon CDP111
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

8 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Sturgeon Bay cityIncorporated place
    9,806
  2. 02
    Sister Bay villageIncorporated place
    1,044
  3. 03
    Forestville villageIncorporated place
    558
  4. 04
    Ephraim villageIncorporated place
    412
  5. 05
    Baileys Harbor CDPCensus-designated place
    386
  6. 06
    Egg Harbor villageIncorporated place
    343
  7. 07
    Ellison Bay CDPCensus-designated place
    186
  8. 08
    Little Sturgeon CDPCensus-designated place
    111

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.057% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.02%

$3,486 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-57

798 in · 855 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$38,283

$115,815 arriving · $77,532 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors8.4%

40 of 475 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings329▲ 27.3% year over year
Median days on market40▼ 41.0% year over year
Listings price-reduced8.9%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▲ 10.7% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; no wider market is mapped for it either.
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Unpublished market rent, vacancy, and lease terms could materially change income economics from the HUD payment-standard reference.
  2. MLS asking-price and inventory conditions may not match closed-sale pricing or parcel-level liquidity.
  3. Flood insurance, elevation, and prior-loss conditions may differ materially from the county-level modeled climate-loss measure.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from this record?

No. Market rent is not published, and HUD FMR is a payment standard rather than asking rent.

What does the migration evidence show?

Tax-return movers show net out-migration, although inbound movers had higher average AGI than outbound movers.

What hazard requires parcel-level review?

Inland flood is the stated dominant hazard.