Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Typical home $311,213 (+3.6% in a year), asking rent $1,310 . Baraboo, WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$874 (+115%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,797 +4%
- $300,416$311,213 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $63,368 +26%
- $247,845$311,213 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Baraboo$1,633
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 15 years.
Typical home values in Baraboo, WI rose 3.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Baraboo, Sauk County, Wisconsin
Baraboo is a city of 12,556 people in Sauk County. Half its households earn more than $69,750 a year and half less, against $79,541 across Sauk County; 8% of its people live below the poverty line. 63% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 37% are rented. Unemployment in Sauk County was 2.8% in August 2026, and the county had 0.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Baraboo is a small city and the kind of place where a good share of residents own the homes they live in. Household incomes run below the county's, and the adults here are somewhat less likely to hold a four-year degree than people in many larger cities. Winters are cold, with January highs near freezing and lows well below it, and a good deal of snow falls over the year. Summers are warm, and rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount through the seasons.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in manufacturing, in shops, or in restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the largest workplaces in Baraboo are Seneca Foods, Sysco Baraboo and St. Clare Hospital. Job numbers across the county slipped slightly last year, and the typical trip to work is a moderate one.
Things to do. Some of the best-known places are right in or beside town, including the Ice Age Trail for walking and the Circus World Museum, which recalls the area's circus past. The Al. Ringling Theatre is also in town, and a short drive away are Devil's Lake and Devil's Lake State Park for lakeside outdoor time, and the International Crane Foundation, a zoo-like centre devoted to cranes.
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- 6,108households
- 26%of adults have a degree
- 8%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Sauk County had 36,443 jobs in 2025, 0.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 83° and lows near 60°. About 43 inches of snow and 39 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Baraboo weather station, under a mile away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Baraboo
- Seneca FoodsCans, steel, light gauge metal, manufacturing353
- Sysco BarabooGroceries, general-line, merchant wholesalers316
- Flambeau Baraboo PlantMotor vehicle moldings and extrusions, plastics, manufacturing301
- Teel Plastics-Teel CourtFittings and unions, rigid plastics pipe, manufacturing300
- St. Clare HospitalGeneral hospital275FTE
- Menards"home centers"194
- BlainsDepartment store106
- Complete-Care Jefferson MeadowsSkilled nursing facilities90
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 20 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,546 people in all. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- HailRelatively moderate
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Cold wavesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Sauk County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Sauk County and the Baraboo, WI metro.
Baraboo home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Baraboo$311,213
- Wisconsin$337,196
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Baraboo listings, and the typical home goes pending in 18 days — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Baraboo22.41%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Baraboo37
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Baraboo17
Zip codes with a Baraboo address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Baraboo — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.