Gross property tax levies approved in 2023 by local taxing jurisdictions in Wisconsin increased by4.6% 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 Wisconsin Policy Forum’s newly updated 2024 Property Values and Taxes DataTool, which features interactive data for all of Wisconsin’s 72 counties and nearly 1,850 cities, villages, and towns. It is the latest in a series of Forum interactive tools meant to provide all Wisconsinites with relevant facts about their schools, local governments, and state and regional economy. Key findings from the tool are
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. In the period between 2007 and 2021, statewide annual property value increases never exceeded 6.8%.
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. Meanwhile, after near-record growth of 13.2% (2022) and 10.9% (2023), statewide commercial property values increased by 10.1% in 2024.
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.