Wisconsin housing data study · 2026
Who Owns Wisconsin's Homes?
Most of Wisconsin's homes are owned by the people living in them — but not all, and where the exceptions cluster tells a story. We analyzed public property records for all 2.1 million Wisconsin dwellings to see who actually holds the deeds: how many are owned from out of state (and from where), and how many are held by companies instead of people. The statewide averages are modest; the county-level numbers are not.
The Minnesota–Illinois divide
Statewide, about 5% of Wisconsin homes are owned by out-of-staters — but that average hides a dramatic geography. In the lake-and-cabin counties it runs four to ten times higher: Burnett County is 39.7% out-of-state owned, Sawyer 30%, and Walworth (home to Lake Geneva) 23%. And the owners split along a clean line: northwest Wisconsin belongs to Minnesota (Burnett, Sawyer, Bayfield, Polk — Twin Cities lake country), while the Northwoods and southeast belong to Illinois (Vilas, Door, Walworth, Adams — Chicago's weekend map). The bars below are colored by each county's dominant out-of-state owner.
Where out-of-state owners live
When a Wisconsin home is owned from out of state, the owner is most often in Illinois — by a wide margin — followed by Minnesota, then the snowbird states (Florida, California, Texas, Arizona). Illinois and Minnesota together account for the large majority of out-of-state ownership, which is exactly what the border-and-lake-country pattern predicts.
Companies, not people
Separate from where owners live is what owns the home. About 5.7% of Wisconsin homes are held by companies (LLCs, corporations, LPs) rather than individuals — using a strict registered-company filter, not the looser "business entity" label that over-counts trusts and individuals. The concentration is split between two very different stories: Milwaukee (9.2% — roughly 22,973 homes) reflects urban rental and investor ownership, while the high lake counties (Vilas, Door) reflect vacation-rental LLCs.
The scattered-site landlords behind the LLCs
Company ownership isn't just one apartment building on one block — the biggest operators own scattered single-family houses spread across whole regions. The largest, VineBrook Homes, holds well over 552 Wisconsin houses — but you'd never know it from a single name, because it's split across a cluster of near-identical LLCs (VB One, VB Two, VB Nine, VB Ten… each a separate company on the deed). That shell pattern is common at the top: a single operator standing behind many LLCs, each holding a few dozen homes across a dozen-plus ZIP codes. By our count, more than 360 companies own ten or more scattered single-family Wisconsin homes, and about 20 own fifty or more. The chart shows the largest single-family landlords by house count; VineBrook's entities are highlighted to show how one operator fragments across the data.
What it means
For sellers, these patterns are the texture of a real, active market: in much of Wisconsin you're competing with — or selling to — out-of-state buyers and investors who already know the area's value. For everyone, it's a reminder that "who owns the neighborhood" is a question public records can actually answer. (We're a cash home buyer in Wisconsin, and we built these numbers from the same public data we use to make offers — see how cash buyers value a home.)
Full county data
| County | Homes | Out-of-state | Top origin | Company-owned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burnett | 15,692 | 39.7% | Minnesota | 3.5% |
| Sawyer | 14,507 | 30.3% | Minnesota | 5.1% |
| Walworth | 46,039 | 23.3% | Illinois | 7.3% |
| Bayfield | 12,886 | 23% | Minnesota | 4.8% |
| Vilas | 30,455 | 21.5% | Illinois | 10.3% |
| Door | 25,356 | 20.3% | Illinois | 9% |
| Adams | 18,387 | 19.1% | Illinois | 3.3% |
| Polk | 22,041 | 19.1% | Minnesota | 2.8% |
| Iron | 6,004 | 18.5% | Illinois | 5.2% |
| Juneau | 13,414 | 15.1% | Illinois | 3.7% |
| Oneida | 30,125 | 14.4% | Illinois | 6.5% |
| Ashland | 8,009 | 12.9% | Minnesota | 5.1% |
| Florence | 4,905 | 12.5% | Michigan | 3.9% |
| Green Lake | 9,289 | 12.5% | Illinois | 5.1% |
| Douglas | 19,328 | 12.4% | Minnesota | 5.4% |
| Barron | 21,083 | 12.2% | Minnesota | 4.3% |
| Pepin | 3,082 | 10.8% | Minnesota | 2.8% |
| Menominee | 1,615 | 10.4% | Illinois | 3.2% |
| Crawford | 6,537 | 10.2% | Iowa | 5.2% |
| Rusk | 8,054 | 10.1% | Minnesota | 5.4% |
| Marquette | 9,598 | 9.9% | Illinois | 3.1% |
| Price | 10,761 | 9.3% | Illinois | 3.9% |
| Kenosha | 55,014 | 7.4% | Illinois | 6% |
| Sauk | 23,860 | 7.3% | Illinois | 6.3% |
| Forest | 8,673 | 7.1% | Illinois | 3.5% |
| Waushara | 14,468 | 6.9% | Illinois | 4.1% |
| Buffalo | 4,721 | 6.3% | Minnesota | 4.7% |
| Lincoln | 15,493 | 5.9% | Illinois | 3.8% |
| Marinette | 27,874 | 5.8% | Illinois | 3.6% |
| Pierce | 14,786 | 5.4% | Minnesota | 4.6% |
| Langlade | 11,733 | 4.8% | Illinois | 4.4% |
| St. Croix | 30,807 | 4.5% | Minnesota | 5.5% |
| Jackson | 8,617 | 4.5% | Illinois | 4.9% |
| Oconto | 23,998 | 3.8% | Illinois | 3% |
| Vernon | 10,568 | 3.7% | Illinois | 4.3% |
| Columbia | 21,217 | 3.6% | Illinois | 3.7% |
| Monroe | 15,087 | 3.5% | Texas | 6.4% |
| Chippewa | 25,459 | 3.3% | Minnesota | 5% |
| Waupaca | 22,153 | 3.3% | Illinois | 5% |
| Milwaukee | 249,709 | 3.3% | California | 9.2% |
| Lafayette | 6,000 | 3.2% | Illinois | 5% |
| Jefferson | 29,778 | 3.2% | Illinois | 6.2% |
| Dunn | 14,344 | 3.2% | Minnesota | 4.8% |
| Grant | 15,816 | 3.1% | Illinois | 6.2% |
| Richland | 6,005 | 3.1% | Illinois | 5.1% |
| Kewaunee | 7,996 | 3.1% | Illinois | 3.4% |
| Rock | 57,247 | 3.1% | Illinois | 5% |
| Racine | 66,179 | 3.1% | Illinois | 4.5% |
| Sheboygan | 38,797 | 2.9% | Illinois | 5.4% |
| Taylor | 9,293 | 2.9% | Illinois | 5.2% |
| Washburn | 5,841 | 2.9% | Minnesota | 1% |
| Clark | 12,173 | 2.8% | Illinois | 4% |
| Dane | 171,326 | 2.5% | Illinois | 6.1% |
| Shawano | 18,047 | 2.4% | Illinois | 4.6% |
| Iowa | 8,513 | 2.4% | Illinois | 4.2% |
| Manitowoc | 30,814 | 2.3% | Illinois | 5.3% |
| Trempealeau | 10,606 | 2.1% | Minnesota | 5.2% |
| Eau Claire | 35,097 | 1.8% | Minnesota | 8.6% |
| Green | 12,833 | 1.8% | Illinois | 3.7% |
| Winnebago | 57,073 | 1.7% | Illinois | 7.1% |
| Portage | 25,960 | 1.7% | Illinois | 5.6% |
| La Crosse | 34,733 | 1.6% | Minnesota | 7.5% |
| Dodge | 28,103 | 1.6% | Illinois | 3.8% |
| Brown | 83,063 | 1.5% | Florida | 5.8% |
| Fond du Lac | 37,121 | 1.5% | Illinois | 6% |
| Marathon | 51,995 | 1.4% | Illinois | 6.1% |
| Wood | 28,141 | 1.3% | Illinois | 4.5% |
| Ozaukee | 32,385 | 1.3% | Florida | 2.9% |
| Waukesha | 138,514 | 1.2% | Florida | 2.2% |
| Calumet | 19,008 | 1.2% | Illinois | 3.7% |
| Washington | 51,814 | 1% | Florida | 4.9% |
| Outagamie | 65,722 | 0.9% | Florida | 5.2% |
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