Weekly Fiscal Facts are provided to Wisconsin Newspaper Association members by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. The Wisconsin Policy Forum logo can be downloaded here.
Gross property tax levies approved in 2023 by local taxing jurisdictions in Wisconsin increased by 4.6% statewide, which exceeded inflation and was the largest increase since 2007.
Meanwhile, equalized property values increased 7.7% in 2024 – a slowdown from the record pace of the two prior years, but still a large increase by recent standards.
Annual growth in property values once again exceeded the growth in property tax levies, causing the statewide gross property tax rate to decline for the tenth consecutive year. It went from $16.78 per $1,000 of equalized property value in 2022 to $15.53 in 2023, a 7.5% decline.
These are among the key statewide findings from the Forum’s newly updated 2024 Property Values and Taxes DataTool. This interactive tool provides data for all of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, and nearly 1,850 cities, villages, and towns.
The state’s 7.7% increase in total equalized property values in 2024 was significantly lower than the growth seen in 2022 (13.8%) and 2023 (13.1%). Still, with the exception of those two years, the 2024 increase was the highest since 2006.
Residential property values for the state of Wisconsin grew 8.7% in 2024, which was significantly lower than the state’s increases in 2022 (14.9%) and 2023 (14.0%) but still the third-largest rise since 2006.
The 4.6% increase in statewide gross property tax levies – which appears on December 2023 tax bills, and provides revenue for 2024 local budgets — was nearly double the previous year’s increase. It also surpassed the 2023 inflation rate of 4.1%. This follows two years in which inflation substantially outstripped statewide levy increases.
In the seven-county southeast Wisconsin region, overall equalized property values increased 6.2% — a notable slowdown from the 2023 regional growth of 12.0%. In 2023, all seven counties in the region experienced a double-digit increase in total property values; in 2024, although all seven counties saw an increase, only Walworth County experienced double-digit growth (10.0%). Milwaukee County recorded a 6% rise; the regional county with the smallest annual increase was Waukesha, at 3.9%.
Aggregate property tax levies rose 2.7% in the seven-county southeast Wisconsin region. This trailed the state average and inflation but exceeded the region’s increases in 2021 (1.0%) and 2022 (1.7%).
In Dane County, total equalized property values grew by 8.4% in 2024, exceeding the state average but below the county’s prior year increase of 11.6%. The gross tax levy from all local units of government in Dane County grew by 7.8%, outpacing the statewide average and amounting to the largest increase in the county since at least 2008.
This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. Learn more at wispolicyforum.org.
