All homes and bedroom counts
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Madison, WI
Madison merits investigation by buyers who prioritize renter affordability and will screen each property for flood exposure.
Median price$455k
Median rent$1,676
Gross yield4.4%
Job growth▼ 0.4%
Composite Market ScoreRank #299 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Madison, WI?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,676 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 2.72% from a year earlier.
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside Madison
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dane County, WIFIPS 55025 | $1,268 | $1,482 | $1,694 | $2,236 | $2,509 |
| Columbia County, WIFIPS 55021 | $824 | $911 | $1,195 | $1,645 | $1,798 |
| Green County, WIFIPS 55045 | $794 | $840 | $1,097 | $1,315 | $1,452 |
| Iowa County, WIFIPS 55049 | $884 | $890 | $1,168 | $1,535 | $1,959 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Madison merits investigation by buyers who prioritize renter affordability and will screen each property for flood exposure. Yield-focused investors and those relying on immediate employment growth should avoid it. A $454,523 median value against $1,676 median asking rent produces a 4.43% gross yield, making acquisition price the central constraint.
The opportunity is that asking rent rose 2.72%, rent absorbs 22.65% of median income, and tax filings show net migration of 1,213 households. The risk is that CES employment fell 0.38% and incoming movers had lower average income than outgoing movers, so positive migration does not by itself establish stronger tenant economics.
Supply signals are mixed: 2.5 months of for-sale inventory leaves limited listed supply, while 64.5% of permits are in larger buildings, making the development pipeline a rental-competition risk. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the annual building-value loss ratio is 0.0983%; parcel-level exposure is not published.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
How do rents and prices compare with household income?
Rent equals 22.65% of median household income, while the home-value-to-income ratio is 5.12.
What does migration reveal about household flow and income?
Tax filings show 17,828 households moved in and 16,615 moved out, for net migration of 1,213. Average mover income was $64,429 inbound and $74,455 outbound, with a reported gap of -$10,026.
What climate risk is identified?
Inland flood is the dominant hazard. The annual building-value loss ratio is 0.0983%; parcel-level exposure is not published.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 4.4%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 2.72%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 7.3%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Madison as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
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Market pulse
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.
Months of supply2.5 mo.▲ from 2.3 mo. a year ago
Median days on market47 daysunchanged from a year ago
Listings with price drops16.2%▲ from 16.0% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio100.6%2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 2.6%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 2.72%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield4.4%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 0.4%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady48→48
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
The one chart
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 54% and rents 41%. Prices running ahead of rents is what compresses yield. ✓ recomputed from series
Composite breakdown
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.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
48| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 29 | 30% | 8.70 |
| Rent trend | 40 | 25% | 10.00 |
| Affordability | 63 | 15% | 9.45 |
| Supply pressure | 43 | 15% | 6.45 |
| Climate risk | 87 | 15% | 13.05 |
| Published score | 48 | ||
Madison, WI scoreRank #299
48Job growth29/100
CES employment fell 0.38% year over year -> the labor-market signal does not support an aggressive rent-growth assumption.
Rent trend40/100
Asking rent rose 2.72% year over year while gross yield is 4.43% -> rent momentum is positive, but income return remains constrained by the purchase price.
Affordability63/100
Rent is 22.65% of median income while home value is 5.12 times income -> affordability favors renting over buying, but investors face a substantial acquisition multiple.
Supply pressure43/100
There are 2.5 months of supply and 5,074 permits, with 64.5% in larger buildings -> buyers face limited current listings and a pipeline concentrated in potential rental competition.
Climate risk87/100
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual loss ratio is 0.0983% -> parcel-level water exposure should be checked because the record provides only a metro ratio.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$455k
YoY ▲ 2.6%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,676
YoY ▲ 2.72%
Gross Rental Yield
4.4%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,676 × 12 ÷ $454,523
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 0.4%
CES payrolls
Job signal 29/100
Median Household Income
$89k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
22.7%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
5.1x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,182
Market rent 141.9% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark4 of 4 reported values
Zero-based scale$1,676Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗$901−$776 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,182−$495 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,354−$322 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep Madison as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Madison, WI
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 31540. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$1,5172026-07 · +0.5% year over year
Rental vacancy10.1%2026-07 · +3.1 percentage points year over year
Time on marketn/an/a
Measured rent retention
How much of gross yield survives the first two measured deductions?
This bridge subtracts direct rental vacancy and effective property tax only. It is not net yield, NOI, cap rate or property cash flow.
measured retention property tax vacancy
- Gross yield
- 4.4%
- Vacancy
- 10.1%
- Effective tax
- 1.6%
- Retained yield
- 2.4%
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Madison
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$49,090 median wage
41.0%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$33,430 median wage
60.2%
Sales and Related Occupations$43,370 median wage
46.4%
Business and Financial Operations Occupations$80,780 median wage
24.9%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations$89,810 median wage
22.4%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$44,710 median wage
45.0%
Supply pipeline
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.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
4,966 units authorised in 2026, 66% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
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.
Net Household Move
+1,213
17,828 in vs 16,615 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 6.8% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
−$10,026
Arriving $64,429 vs leaving $74,455
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
7.3%
553 of 7,584 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.098% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Rock County · Milwaukee County · Cook County · Sauk County · Jefferson County
✓ 17,828 in − 16,615 out = 1,213 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- Milwaukee, WI1,347 arriving
- Chicago, IL1,278 arriving
- Janesville, WI763 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Milwaukee, WI1,308 leaving
- Chicago, IL995 leaving
- Janesville, WI938 leaving
The other side
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
- CES employment declined 0.38% year over year, leaving a weak employment backdrop for rental demand.
- A 4.43% gross yield could disappoint after costs that are not included in gross yield.
- The 5,074-permit pipeline, with 64.5% in larger buildings, presents rental-competition risk.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Madison
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.
| Market area | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Madison, WI (Target) | 48 | $455k | $1,676 | 4.4% | ▼ 0.4% |
| Colorado Springs, CO | 25 | $457k | $1,779 | 4.7% | ▼ 0.7% |
| Durham, NC | 29 | $416k | $1,691 | 4.9% | ▼ 0.7% |
| Spokane, WA | 49 | $425k | $1,547 | 4.4% | ▲ 0.1% |
| Worcester, MA | 50 | $487k | $2,170 | 5.3% | ▼ 0.0% |
Provenance
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 and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| 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 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| 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 history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| 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 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| 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 - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |