Beaver Dam, WI
Selective buyers focused on rent momentum and limited supply should investigate Beaver Dam; cash-flow buyers requiring a strong starting yield, or buyers dependent on employment and migration growth, should avoid it.
Why this market scores where it does
Written from the figures on this page and then checked against them: every number below had to appear in the source record or recompute from two that did, or the text was rewritten.
Selective buyers focused on rent momentum and limited supply should investigate Beaver Dam; cash-flow buyers requiring a strong starting yield, or buyers dependent on employment and migration growth, should avoid it. Job growth was 0.11%, while net migration was -101 households, making demand the main weakness.
The opportunity is in rent movement, affordability, and restrained supply. Asking rent rose 6.38% year over year and consumes 16.95% of median household income. There were 142 permits, while for-sale inventory stood at 2.6 months. Together, those figures show a restrained supply picture but do not establish stronger tenant demand.
Entry economics still require discipline: the median home value is $327,078, median asking rent is $1,073, and gross yield is 3.94%. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, with a modeled annual loss ratio of 0.0847%, so property-level flood exposure and insurance terms remain important.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What are the current purchase and rental benchmarks?
How much resale and development supply is visible?
What does migration show about household flow and mover income?
Investor Quick Takeaways
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Beaver Dam as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 57 | 30% | 17.10 |
| Rent trend | 85 | 25% | 21.25 |
| Affordability | 94 | 15% | 14.10 |
| Supply pressure | 83 | 15% | 12.45 |
| Climate risk | 94 | 15% | 14.10 |
| Published score | 79 | ||
Job growth of 0.11% and net migration of -101 households -> renter-demand support is weak.
Asking rent rose 6.38% while gross yield is 3.94% -> rent momentum is positive, but current income return is limited.
Rent equals 16.95% of median income and home value equals 4.31 times income -> housing costs appear manageable relative to local earnings.
There were 142 permits, a permit rate of 1.6 per 1,000, and 2.6 months of inventory -> development and resale supply are restrained.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and modeled annual loss is 0.0847% of building value -> parcel-level water exposure and insurance terms require review.
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- Employment grew 0.11%, while 2,380 households moved out and 2,279 moved in, leaving negative net migration.
- The 3.94% gross yield is before operating costs, leaving limited room for expenses or vacancy.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and property-specific exposure and insurance costs are not published.
Move from the metro average to local evidence
County pages carry tax, migration, listing and hazard records. City pages appear only where direct city price, rent and Census evidence pass the publication gate.
No city in this metro has passed the current city evidence gate.
Metros that behave like Beaver Dam
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Metro | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beaver Dam, WI (Target) | 79 | $327k | $1,073 | 3.9% | ▲ 0.1% |
| La Crosse, WI | 66 | $337k | $1,160 | 4.1% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Sheboygan, WI | 62 | $327k | $1,066 | 3.9% | ▼ 0.3% |
| Menomonie, WI | 62 | $318k | $1,090 | 4.1% | ▼ 0.0% |
| Warsaw, IN | 57 | $294k | $1,122 | 4.6% | ▼ 0.1% |
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-07-31 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI 2025 | 2026-07-28 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-23 | 2026-07-27 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-27 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |