The story of this market
The typical home in Columbia County, Wisconsin sells for about $360,000, or $226 per square foot.
Prices are up +1.69% from a year ago, so sellers still have some momentum. Homes take about 54 days to sell. Over the long run, values in this county have grown 136% since 2000. Last year 11 of 13 neighborhoods saw prices rise, so the story isn't the same street to street. The biggest natural hazard here is hail, which FEMA rates very high. HUD's fair market rent for a two-bedroom is $1,136 a month.
HUD sets the fair market rent for a 2-bedroom at $1,136 a month. FEMA's National Risk Index rates overall hazard risk here as Relatively High.
Price climate
Every year of price change, 2000–2025
+4.3%
2025
Each stripe is one year's median price change across the area's census tracts (FHFA repeat-sales index). Deep blue is a strong gain year, red a falling year. Best: 2023 (+11.6%). Worst: 2010 (-4.9%). Hover to read a year.
Monthly price momentum
Home values since 2015
+5.2%
WI · past 12 months
Freddie Mac House Price Index, single-family homes, monthly through 2026-08. Each line starts at 100 in January 2015, so a reading of 180 means prices are up 80% since then.
Rent benchmark
Fair market rent by size
$1,573
3-bed / month
HUD Fair Market Rents, fiscal 2027, for this county. A typical rent for a modest unit, used to set housing-voucher payments.
Neighborhood price trend
Long-run price trend, 2000–2025
+4.3%
2025 change
FHFA repeat-sales index, median of 13 census tracts in this county (2000 = 100). Bars are each year's median change.
Natural hazard exposure
The area's risk shape
91
Relatively High
FEMA National Risk Index. Each spoke is a hazard ranked nationally, where 100 is the most exposed. Expected annual loss: $51,381,104.
Columbia County, Wisconsin
Columbia County displays a balanced residential housing market driven by steady demand from commuters working in the greater Madison metropolitan area alongside local industrial employment. Median sold prices have stabilized near $360,000, while modest inventory levels and healthy list-to-sale ratios reflect solid baseline support without excessive volatility.
No ARED distress-ledger coverage for this county yet — the foreclosure ingest rotates the national county directory, and filings appear here once the county's posted notices are read. Key-figure check: no independent anchor retained yet — first-researched cycles establish the anchor baseline this pass.
Select a city to expand its ZIP intel reports beneath · 13 cities · 13 ZIP reports
Median prices moved up 0.4% year over year.
Homes spend a median of 43 days on market with 4.0 months of supply — a fast-moving market.
5% of listings have cut prices · homes sell at 96.05% of asking — demand is running ahead of supply.
no recorded foreclosure-ledger notices (0.0 per 10,000 residents) · unemployment 2.9% · poverty 8.1% — a stable, low-distress profile.
ACS 2024 5-year estimates. Aggregate published statistics for this county — never individual records, and never an attribute of any individual property or resident.
Deterministic aggregate of 13 researched ZIP reports — sales_count-weighted (population fallback); per point, children lacking the value or its weight are excluded. Tax rates, sentiment and context notes are tier-native and never roll.
Columbia County, Wisconsin — researched county-level history with a deterministic 1 / 3 / 5-year projection
Solid: researched ten-year history · dotted: 1 / 3 / 5-year projection extended from the historical 8.0%/yr trend — a deterministic estimate, not a published forecast or guarantee.
No researched properties in this county yet — the property base layer populates as property research runs, and each property feeds its ZIP's roll-up.
researched Sep 23
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researched Sep 23
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researched Sep 23
| 53555 | Lodi | $388,500 | $246 | +6% | 27 | 99.6% | 14% | 7.2 | 196 | $1,352 | researched Sep 23 |
| 53901 | Portage | $390,000 | $206 | -4.3% | 41 | 98.5% | 14% | 3.2 | 101 | $1,012 | researched Sep 23 |
| 53911 | Arlington | $344,900 | $210 | -1.3% | 59 | 99.9% | 16% | 3.2 | 230 | $1,286 | researched Sep 23 |
| 53923 | Cambria | $495,000 | $435 | -26.1% | 53 | — | — | — | 28 | $705 | researched Sep 23 |
| 53925 | Columbus | $319,500 | $246 | +16.2% | 98 | — | — | 7.8 | — | $900 | researched Sep 23 |
| 53928 | Doylestown | $316,000 | $138 | +9% | 41 | 97.6% | — | 1.8 | 63 | $1,300 | researched Sep 23 |
| 53932 | Fall River | $325,000 | $168 | +1.6% | 22 | 100.1% | — | 1.6 | — | $1,174 | researched Sep 23 |
| 53935 | Friesland | $325,000 | $168 | +1.6% | 22 | 100.1% | — | 1.6 | 89 | $742 | researched Sep 23 |
| 53954 | Pardeeville | $380,000 | $246 | -2.7% | 46 | — | 16.1% | — | 20 | $988 | researched Sep 23 |
| 53955 | Poynette | $389,000 | $245 | +34.1% | 46 | — | — | — | 311 | $912 | researched Sep 23 |
Figures are each ZIP report's own latest research — the county roll-up aggregates them sales_count-weighted (population fallback); ZIPs cycle quarterly.
Columbia County maintains low overall crime rates compared to broader Wisconsin metropolitan centers, with incident rates skewing significantly below national averages. Violent crime is rare, with most reported law enforcement activity revolving around property infractions, traffic enforcement, and occasional retail theft along commercial corridors.
Public school districts throughout Columbia County, including Portage Community, Lodi, and Poynette, generally earn solid state accountability report card ratings from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Districts such as Lodi consistently demonstrate above-average graduation rates and strong college-readiness benchmarks.
Flood risk poses the primary natural hazard in Columbia County, particularly along low-lying floodplains adjacent to the Wisconsin River, Baraboo River, and Lake Wisconsin. Wildfire and seismic hazards are negligible, though severe seasonal convective storms, winter blizzards, and localized spring runoff can affect structural insurance premiums.
Columbia County benefits economically from its strategic position just north of the Dane County/Madison metro area along Interstate 39/90/94. Economic momentum is anchored by plastics and metal fabrication manufacturing, food processing, logistics, and spillover suburban/exurban residential development.
Wisconsin relies on an ad valorem property tax system where local municipal assessors assess property values to reflect market valuation. Total property tax bills represent combined levies from county government, local municipalities, school districts, and the Madison Area Technical College district, with standard state lottery credits available for primary residences.
Columbia County sustains a diversified economy grounded in manufacturing, agricultural processing, healthcare, logistics, and tourism. Major regional employers include Divine Savior Healthcare (Aspirus), Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, Seneca Foods, and Cardinal Glass.
Columbia County serves as a key crossroads traversed by Interstate 39, Interstate 90, and Interstate 94, along with US Highway 151 and US Highway 51. The city of Portage hosts an active Amtrak passenger rail station along the Empire Builder route providing direct rail links between Chicago and Minneapolis.
Property assessment in Wisconsin is administered at the municipal level by local city, village, and town assessors rather than by a unified county appraisal district, with equalization oversight provided by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue.
Property parcels in Columbia County sit under multiple overlapping taxing authorities, including the county general fund, local municipalities, unified school districts, vocational college districts (primarily Madison College), and localized lake rehabilitation or drainage sanitary districts.
Residential property insurance remains generally available at moderate rates across Columbia County, though properties situated in designated Special Flood Hazard Areas along the Wisconsin River and Lake Wisconsin require mandatory flood coverage.
- Kalahari Resorts & Conventions - Wisconsin Dells4.425.2 mi
- Great Wolf Lodge | Wisconsin Dells4.125.7 mi
- Mt. Olympus - Water & Theme Park Resort3.527.5 mi
- Noah's Ark Waterpark4.427 mi
- Kalahari Resorts Indoor Waterpark - Wisconsin Dells4.425.4 mi
- Kalahari Resorts & Conventions - Wisconsin Dells4.425.2 mi
- Camp Randall Stadium4.723.6 mi
- Alliant Energy Center4.425.1 mi
- Olbrich Botanical Gardens4.821.6 mi
- Kohl Center4.723.5 mi
- Marcus Palace Cinema4.516.4 mi
- Parfrey's Glen State Natural Area4.815.8 mi
- Flix Brewhouse Madison4.319.4 mi
- Warner Park4.619.3 mi
- Drumlin Ridge Winery4.715.4 mi
- Wisconsin State Capitol4.823 mi
- Overture Center for the Arts4.823.1 mi
- Garver Feed Mill4.621.4 mi
- Madison Children's Museum4.722.9 mi
- Wollersheim Winery & Distillery4.821 mi
- Parfrey's Glen State Natural Area4.815.8 mi
- Warner Park4.619.3 mi
- Gibraltar Rock State Natural Area4.914.5 mi
- Governor Nelson State Park4.519.4 mi
- Token Creek County Park4.615.2 mi
- Wingra Boats4.924.7 mi
- SkipperBud's417.9 mi
- Johnson's Boats & Motors4.827 mi
- Capitol Boat Club4.818.2 mi
- PinSocial Deforest412.4 mi
- Kestrel Ridge Golf Course4.416.3 mi
- The Meadows of Six Mile Creek4.315.8 mi
- Portage Golf Club4.210.1 mi
- Saddle Ridge Golf Course4.110.6 mi
- East Towne Mall3.819.4 mi
- Global Market and Food Hall4.619.1 mi
- Fleet Farm4.414.4 mi
- Hy-Vee Grocery Store4.219.8 mi
- T.J. Maxx & HomeGoods4.416.4 mi
- Dane County Regional Airport4.518.4 mi
Theme parks, venues, golf, airports, museums, water and shopping across the area from Google Maps, ranked by popularity within the radius shown.
The amenity base that shapes daily life and property demand in this county — what residents actually live with, and what the pipeline is adding.
A 9,000-acre reservoir on the Wisconsin River offering premier recreational boating, year-round walleye and bass fishing, lakeside dining, and shoreline residences.
A major regional winter sports destination outside Portage featuring 48 downhill trails, snow tubing lanes, and state-of-the-art snowmaking attracting visitors across the Midwest.
A historic nineteenth-century canal that connects the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers, offering walking paths, interpretive monuments, and preserved waterworks.
An expansive public conservation wetland and prairie area offering waterfowl hunting, bird watching, hiking trails, and passive wildlife observation.
Data retrieved from U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates profile for Columbia County, WI (FIPS 55021).