Faro Labs / Markets / Milwaukee, WI
Milwaukee real estate investment market
What a typical rental in Milwaukee, Wisconsin costs, rents for, and returns: underwritten by Faro's own engine, not a scraped summary.
Returns assume 20% down at 6.75% over 30 years, 7% vacancy, and standard operating costs: Faro's default assumptions, the same ones every report starts from. Home value and rent trends as of 2026-05-31.
Appreciation market
A typical Milwaukee rental runs $373 short each month at market rent, so the case for buying rests on values rising: they moved 3.2% over the last year. That is a bet on the market rather than on the building, and it needs reserves deep enough to fund the shortfall.
The price a deal actually works at
Faro models five price points for Milwaukee, from a weak buy to a strong one. The market-rate deal is $229,887; a good buy is $206,898 and a great one $183,910 roughly 20% below market value. Those are the bars a specific listing gets measured against when you run it.
How Milwaukee compares
Of the 210 markets Faro publishes, Milwaukee is the 177th most expensive to buy into: 42% below the median covered market, and the 40th strongest on rent-to-price. Within Wisconsin it's the 2nd priciest of 2 markets we cover. On the last year of home-value change it ranks 21st.
To break even at the default financing, a typical Milwaukee property would need about $1,875 a month in rent: $461 more than the $1,414 the market currently supports.
What each tier costs in Milwaukee
Faro models five price points per market. A listing gets measured against these bars, not against a national average.
| Tier | Purchase price | Market rent | vs. market rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak buy | $252,876 | $1,343/mo | +10% |
| Fair buy | $241,381 | $1,386/mo | +5% |
| Market rate | $229,887 | $1,414/mo | — |
| Good buy | $206,898 | $1,485/mo | -10% |
| Great buy | $183,910 | $1,555/mo | -20% |
A typical Milwaukee deal, underwritten
The market-rate property above, run through the same engine every Faro report uses.
| Purchase price | $229,887 |
|---|---|
| Monthly rent | $1,414 |
| Cash required (20% down + 3% closing) | $52,874 |
| Net operating income | $9,836/yr |
| Monthly cash flow | -$373 |
| Cap rate | 4.3% |
| Cash-on-cash return | −8.5% |
| DSCR | 0.69 |
One of the cheapest ways in
At $229,887, a typical Milwaukee property costs 42.1% less than the median market Faro covers: 177th most expensive of 210. Cash required at 20% down plus closing is about $52,874, which is what makes markets like this the usual starting point for a first rental. The trade is management: a cheap property is not a cheap property to run, and the fixed costs, a roof, a furnace, a turnover, are the same dollars against a much smaller rent.
What it would take to break even
A typical Milwaukee property would need about $1,875 a month to cover itself at the default financing: 33% above the $1,414 the market currently supports. That gap is the honest size of the problem: it isn't closed by trimming an expense line, it's closed by buying meaningfully below market, putting more down, or finding a property that rents well above its market's median.
Milwaukee investor questions
Is Milwaukee a good place to buy rental property?
A typical Milwaukee rental at $229,887 renting for $1,414 a month returns 4.3% on a cap-rate basis and runs short by $373 a month at 20% down. Individual deals vary far more than markets do, which is the whole reason to underwrite a specific address.
Can you cash-flow a rental in Milwaukee?
Not at the market's own price and rent. A typical property runs $373 short each month. It would need about $1,875 in rent to break even. Deals that work here are bought below market rather than at it, which is what the price ladder above is for.
How much do you need to buy a rental in Milwaukee?
About $52,874 at 20% down plus 3% closing on a typical $229,887 property: one of the lower entry points among the 210 markets covered here.
Are rents going up in Milwaukee?
Rents moved up 5.3% over the last year, measured across 18 ZIP codes. The typical market-rate rental sits at $1,414 a month.
Other Wisconsin markets
Run the numbers yourself
A market average is not a deal.
Paste a real Milwaukee listing and Faro underwrites that specific property from its own comps, with a target price you can actually offer.
Estimates for analysis and educational use only: not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Verify every number independently before making a purchase decision.