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Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > March 28, 2008
Chicago sprawl drives up property values near border
Published March 28, 2008 - BizTimes Daily
Southeastern Wisconsin's border counties, Walworth County and Kenosha County, had the highest property value increases during the last year and during the last 10 years, according to a new report from the Public Policy Forum.
From 2006 to 2007, Walworth County's property values rose 10.5 percent, the highest increase in southeastern Wisconsin, and Kenosha County's values rose, 7.2 percent, the second-highest increase in the region.
Over the last 10 years, Walworth County led the region with a 121.4-percent property value increase and Kenosha County had a 109.3-percent increase, the second-highest in the region.
The growth and sprawl from the Chicago metro area is driving the property value increases in Walworth and Kenosha counties. From 2006-07, Chicago's metro area (which includes the Kenosha area) population growth ranked seventh out of 363 metro areas, according to the U.S. Census bureau. During the year, the Chicago area added 66,231 people, bringing its total population to nearly 9.5 million.
For the first time since 1992, Waukesha County had the lowest percentage property value increase of the southeastern Wisconsin counties. From 2006-07, the county had a property value increase of only 5.1 percent, down from the previous year's 8.9 percent growth.
Every county in southeastern Wisconsin had a lower property value increase than in the previous year, according to the report.
This was the second year in a row that Waukesha County had a lower property value growth rate than Milwaukee County. However, Milwaukee County went from having the second-highest property value growth in the region, 12.2 percent from 2005-06, to the second-lowest, 5.5 percent in 2006-07.
As a whole, southeastern Wisconsin had a 6.0 percent property value increase from 2006-07, lower than the state's 6.2 percent growth rate.
