WI metros
Cost of living across major WI metropolitan areas.
What living in WI costs
Across the 4 WI metros we track, the typical cost-of-living index is 95.7 against a national metro median of 95.7 — line with the country as a whole. That ranks WI 26 of the 48 states we cover, counting from the cheapest.
The state is not uniform: Green Bay, WI is the cheapest metro at 92.2, while Madison, WI runs 95.9 — a spread of 4% between them.
A typical WI home costs $390,238, or about 4.9× median household income, and typical rent is $1,538/mo.
Taxes in WI
WI levies a state income tax on top of the federal one. Effective property tax runs about 1.6% of home value in a typical WI metro, and combined state and local sales tax is around 5.4%.
Property tax is the one that scales with housing, so it bites hardest in the pricier metros above. Per-metro figures are on each metro page.
| Metro | COL index | Median home | Median rent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Milwaukee, WI | 95.7 | $390,238 | $1,538 |
| Madison, WI | 95.9 | $452,769 | $1,683 |
| Green Bay, WI | 92.2 | $346,517 | $1,179 |
| Appleton, WI | 93.7 | $350,370 | $1,217 |
Cities & towns in WI (56)
Local property tax, home values and school scores for each place.