Racine, WI cityscape
Markets / Wisconsin / Racine
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE

Racine, WI

Racine is worth selective investigation for income-focused buyers who can accept weak employment and conduct property-level flood diligence; buyers requiring clear job growth or minimal hazard work should avoid it.

Median price$317k
Median rent$1,462
Gross yield5.5%
Job growth▼ 0.8%
Metro Area · CBSA 3954040 public sourcesChecked nightly
SCORE / 10050RANK #267 / 571
Composite Market ScoreRank #267 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer

How much is rent in Racine, WI?

Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,462 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 3.12% from a year earlier.

Zillow ZORI$1,4622026-06-30

All homes and bedroom counts

Census ACS gross rent$1,080ACS 2024 5-year

Occupied rental units paying rent

HUD 2BR FMR$1,235FY2026 FMR

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 Racine

Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.

FY2026 FMR · FY2026 · monthly gross-rent standards
CountyStudio1 BR2 BR3 BR4 BR
Racine County, WIFIPS 55101$851$988$1,235$1,592$1,962
The read

Why this market scores where it does

Racine is worth selective investigation for income-focused buyers who can accept weak employment and conduct property-level flood diligence; buyers requiring clear job growth or minimal hazard work should avoid it. Median asking rent is $1,462 against a $317,194 median home value, producing a 5.53% gross yield.

The opportunity is tenant affordability and tight for-sale inventory: rent consumes 22.47% of median household income, while inventory is 2.0 months. Yet 19.07% of listings have price drops. Asking rent rose 3.12%, but home values rose 4.84%, leaving acquisition pricing less favorable than the rent trend alone suggests.

The main risk is demand support. CES employment fell 0.78%, and net migration was 65 households. The annual climate loss ratio is 0.0854%, with inland flooding named as the dominant hazard; the small market-level loss measure does not remove property-level water risk. Verify insurance, flood mapping and tenant demand rather than relying on metro averages.

Frequently Asked Investor Questions

What do the median price and rent imply for gross yield?
The record reports a $317,194 median home value, $1,462 median monthly asking rent and 5.53% gross yield.
What does household migration show?
The metro had 4,642 households move in and 4,577 move out, leaving net migration of 65 households; incoming movers had average income of $67,142 versus $62,748 for outgoing movers.
What climate hazard should a buyer examine?
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.0854% of building value.

Investor Quick Takeaways

Gross Yield: 5.5%

Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.

Rent Momentum: ▲ 3.12%

Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.

Investor Activity: 10.5%

Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).

Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI

Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.

Run Cash-Flow Test for Racine
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 supply2.0 mo.▲ from 1.7 mo. a year ago
Median days on market37 days▲ from 36 days a year ago
Listings with price drops19.1%▲ from 17.2% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio100.9%2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 4.8%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 3.12%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield5.5%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 0.8%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 steady5050
0 pts

The 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.

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.

Jobs17Rent trend46Affordability65Supply68Climate safety93
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
50
SignalScoreWeightPoints
Job growth1730%5.10
Rent trend4625%11.50
Affordability6515%9.75
Supply pressure6815%10.20
Climate risk9315%13.95
Published score50
Racine, WI scoreRank #267
50
Job growth17/100

CES employment declined 0.78% year over year -> employment is a weak demand signal.

Rent trend46/100

Median asking rent rose 3.12% and gross yield is 5.53% -> rent growth is positive, but the yield is stated before expenses.

Affordability65/100

Rent equals 22.47% of median household income while price is 4.06 times income -> tenant affordability is stronger than purchase affordability.

Supply pressure68/100

Inventory is 2.0 months, median time on market is 37 days and 19.07% of listings have price drops -> supply is tight, though some sellers are reducing prices.

Climate risk93/100

The annual climate loss ratio is 0.0854%, with inland flood the dominant hazard -> the market-level loss measure is small, but individual properties still require water-risk review.

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
$317k
YoY ▲ 4.8%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,462
YoY ▲ 3.12%
Gross Rental Yield
5.5%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,462 × 12 ÷ $317,194
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 0.8%
CES payrolls
Job signal 17/100
Median Household Income
$78k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
22.5%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
4.1x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,235
Market rent 118.4% 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
Monthly rental benchmarksIndependent monthly rent measures shown on a zero-based scale. Missing source values are labelled unavailable and are not inferred.$0$375$750$1,125$1,500Zillow ZORI2026-06-30$1,462HUD 1BR FMRFY2026 FMR$988HUD 2BR FMRFY2026 FMR$1,235Census ACS gross rentACS 2024 5-year$1,080Monthly rental benchmarksIndependent monthly rent measures shown on a zero-based scale. Missing source values are labelled unavailable and are not inferred.$0$750$1,500Zillow ZORI2026-06-30$1,462HUD 1BR FMRFY2026 FMR$988HUD 2BR FMRFY2026 FMR$1,235ACS gross rentACS 2024 5-year$1,080
The chart compares published levels without averaging them. A longer bar does not mean a source is more accurate; it means that source measures a higher rent under its own definition.
Typical observed market rentZillow ZORI
$1,462Primary 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 ↗
Fair Market RentHUD 1BR FMR
$988−$474 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 ↗
Fair Market RentHUD 2BR FMR
$1,235−$227 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 ↗
Median gross rentCensus ACS gross rent
$1,080−$382 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 Racine as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.

Regional price level

What feels expensive inside Racine

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
Regional price parity categories for Racine, WIHorizontal bars compare all-items, housing, goods, utilities and other-services price levels with the United States benchmark of 100.8090100110All items96.0Housing92.0Goods93.8Utilities90.0Other services99.4
Orange extends above the national level; emerald extends below it. The chart does not convert rent or income into purchasing power.
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
Annualized asking rent compared with major occupational median wages in Racine, WIHorizontal bars show annualized Zillow asking rent as a share of the BLS annual median wage for six major occupational groups with the largest published employment.0%10%20%30%40%50%60%Production Occupations$48,640 median wage36.1%Office and AdministrativeSupport Occupations$47,270 median wage37.1%Transportation and MaterialMoving Occupations$45,770 median wage38.3%Sales and Related Occupations$36,140 median wage48.5%Food Preparation and ServingRelated Occupations$29,740 median wage59.0%Healthcare Support Occupations$37,420 median wage46.9%
Production Occupations$48,640 median wage
36.1%
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$47,270 median wage
37.1%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$45,770 median wage
38.3%
Sales and Related Occupations$36,140 median wage
48.5%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$29,740 median wage
59.0%
Healthcare Support Occupations$37,420 median wage
46.9%
BLS OEWS 2025-05; Zillow rent 2026-06-30. The 30% line is a visible screen, not a RentMarker score or a claim about household costs.
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
Download CSV ↓
276201918020202192021145202251820232232024595202569620265+ unit buildingssingle family
696 units authorised in 2026, 28% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ recomputed from series
Source: Census Building Permits Survey
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
+65
4,642 in vs 4,577 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 1.4% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
+$4,394
Arriving $67,142 vs leaving $62,748
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
10.5%
227 of 2,151 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.085% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →
Households arrive mainly from: Milwaukee County · Kenosha County · Waukesha County · Walworth County · Lake County
4,642 in − 4,577 out = 65 net
Direct 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.

Explore every route
Leading inbound markets
  1. Milwaukee, WI1,426 arriving
  2. Chicago, IL479 arriving
  3. Whitewater, WI231 arriving
Leading outbound markets
  1. Milwaukee, WI1,382 leaving
  2. Chicago, IL258 leaving
  3. Whitewater, WI246 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

  1. Demand signals are thin: CES employment fell 0.78% year over year and net migration was 65 households.
  2. Home values rose 4.84% while asking rents rose 3.12%, making entry pricing less favorable than rent growth alone indicates.
  3. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the 0.0854% market-level annual loss ratio does not describe a specific property's water exposure.
Statistical peers

Market areas that behave like Racine

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 areaScorePriceRentYieldJob Growth
Racine, WI (Target)50$317k$1,4625.5%▼ 0.8%
Dover, DE35$375k$1,7255.5%▼ 0.9%
Glens Falls, NY54$320k$1,4245.3%▼ 0.8%
Kalamazoo, MI65$282k$1,2875.5%▼ 0.4%
Staunton, VA54$339k$1,5935.6%▼ 0.5%
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 SourceMethodRelease PeriodPulled Date
Census ACS 5-year — household income and gross rentdirectACS 2024 5-year2026-08-05
Census ACS 5-year — historical household incomedirectACS 2019 and 2024 5-year2026-08-05
Census ACS 5-year — populationdirectACS 2024 5-year2026-07-26
Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent indexdirectApartment List 2026-072026-08-08
Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquiditydirectApartment List 2026-072026-08-08
Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancydirectApartment List 2026-072026-08-08
BEA County Personal Income — income and populationdirect2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-20242026-08-03
BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levelsdirect2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-20242026-08-03
BLS CES — payroll employmentdirectCES SM current2026-07-26
BLS LAUS — resident employmentdirectLAUS current2026-07-26
BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wagesdirectMay 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15)2026-08-03
BLS QCEW — county employment and wagesdirectannual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 20242026-08-02
OMB/BLS delineation — metro geographydirectOMB July 2023 delineation2026-07-30
Census Building Permits Survey — permitted unitsdirectBPS through 20262026-07-26
Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housingdirectACS 2024 5-year2026-07-29
Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stockdirectACS 2024 5-year2026-07-30
Census ACS 5-year — cities and communitiesdirectACS 2024 5-year2026-07-30
Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and incomedirectACS 2024 5-year ZCTA2026-08-08
FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratiosmodelledNRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS)2026-07-26
FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciationdirectannual county HPI history 1975-2025; latest 20252026-08-02
HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy typedirectHMDA 2024 purchase originations2026-07-26
HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income banddirectHUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23)2026-08-03
HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standarddirectFY2026 FMR2026-07-26
HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallbackdirectZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY20262026-07-26
HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalkdirectHUD-USPS 2026Q12026-08-09
IRS SOI — county migration and mover incomedirectSOI migration 2022-20232026-07-26
Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage ratesdirectweek of 2026-07-302026-08-06
Census ACS 5-year — effective property taxdirectACS 2024 5-year2026-08-06
Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventorydirectcounty inventory 2026-062026-07-28
Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rentsdirecttop-50 rental asking rents 2026-052026-08-05
Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cutsdirectmetro tracker through 2026-05-012026-07-26
Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supplydirectZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-032026-08-12
USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum CodesdirectUSDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes2026-08-02
Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rentsdirectcounty ZHVI/ZORI 2026-062026-07-26
Zillow ZHVI — metro home valuesdirectMetro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv2026-07-26
Zillow ZHVI — city home valuesdirectzillow_zhvi_city.csv2026-07-29
Zillow ZORI — metro market rentsdirectMetro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv2026-07-26
Zillow ZORI — city market rentsdirectzillow_zori_city.csv2026-07-29
Zillow ZORI - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusteddirectMetro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv2026-08-15
Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rentsdirectZORI ZIP 2026-062026-08-08