Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee merits investigation by buyers who prioritize tight for-sale supply and can accept modest current income; buyers whose plan depends on job growth or a gross yield above 4.73% 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.
Milwaukee merits investigation by buyers who prioritize tight for-sale supply and can accept modest current income; buyers whose plan depends on job growth or a gross yield above 4.73% should avoid it. A $394,038 median home value against $1,552 monthly asking rent produces that published yield.
The opportunity is rent movement and limited resale availability: asking rent rose 4.19% year over year and inventory was 2.1 months. The tension is that CES employment declined 0.88% while home values rose 5.16%, so recent pricing strength is not matched by the labor signal.
Risk also appears in household flows: net migration was -1,520, and movers entering had average income $11,400 below movers leaving. The 0.085% recorded annual climate loss ratio is small as a share of building value, but inland flood is the dominant hazard; property-level water exposure and insurance terms remain due-diligence items.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What are the basic acquisition and rent figures?
What does the listing record show about supply and seller adjustments?
What climate risk is identified?
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 Milwaukee 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.
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.
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 | 15 | 30% | 4.50 |
| Rent trend | 63 | 25% | 15.75 |
| Affordability | 54 | 15% | 8.10 |
| Supply pressure | 84 | 15% | 12.60 |
| Climate risk | 94 | 15% | 14.10 |
| Published score | 55 | ||
CES employment declined 0.88% year over year -> rental gains lack a supporting job-growth signal.
Asking rent rose 4.19% while gross yield was 4.73% -> rent movement is positive, but starting income remains limited relative to price.
Rent-to-income was 23.81% and price-to-income was 5.04 -> tenant rent burden is lighter than the ownership entry multiple.
Supply was 2.1 months, median market time was 38 days, and 15.64% of listings had price drops -> inventory is limited, though some sellers still adjusted.
Recorded annual climate loss was 0.085% of building value, with inland flood dominant -> aggregate loss is low, but water exposure requires property-level 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
- CES employment declined 0.88% year over year, leaving no positive job-growth signal to pair with rent gains.
- Net migration was -1,520, and incoming movers had average income $11,400 below outgoing movers.
- Home values rose 5.16% while asking rents rose 4.19%, and gross yield was 4.73%, limiting the income cushion visible in the record.
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.
Metros that behave like Milwaukee
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee, WI (Target) | 55 | $394k | $1,552 | 4.7% | ▼ 0.9% |
| Albuquerque, NM | 31 | $354k | $1,522 | 5.2% | ▼ 0.8% |
| Grand Rapids, MI | 55 | $362k | $1,645 | 5.5% | ▼ 0.3% |
| Jacksonville, FL | 30 | $354k | $1,708 | 5.8% | ▼ 0.4% |
| Tucson, AZ | 28 | $343k | $1,483 | 5.2% | ▼ 0.2% |
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 |