Black Earth, Wisconsin.
Typical home $388,076 (+4.1% in a year). Madison, WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,056 (+108%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,448 +4%
- $372,628$388,076 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $74,788 +24%
- $313,289$388,076 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.
- Black Earth$2,037
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 16 years.
Typical home values in Black Earth, WI rose 4.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Black Earth, Dane County, Wisconsin
Black Earth is a village of 1,493 people in Dane County. Half its households earn more than $75,625 a year and half less, against $89,975 across Dane County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 86% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 14% are rented. Unemployment in Dane County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.6% more 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Black Earth is a small village in Dane County where nearly everyone owns the home they live in, a larger share of owners than you would expect from a typical American community. Household incomes run below the county's, and typical home values are in the mid-range for the area. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month, and snow is a regular part of the season; summers are warm, and precipitation falls fairly evenly through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, the building trades and shops also employing many. Across Dane County, the largest workplaces include the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the University of WI Hospitals & Clinics and the Madison Metropolitan School District. Unemployment across the county is a little higher than a year ago, and many residents commute to work, though a good number work from home.
Things to do. The Black Earth Rettenmund Prairie State Natural Area lies in or beside town, and the Sugar River is a short drive away for time by the water. Also a short drive away is Little Norway, Wisconsin, a museum, and Blue Mound State Park, a protected area for walking and views. For a day in Madison, Lake Mendota is a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 645households
- 28%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 20%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Dane County had 361,286 jobs in 2025, 0.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 7°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 58°. About 30 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mazomanie Wwtp weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Dane County
- University of Wisconsin-MadisonUniversity or college20,893
- University of WI Hospitals & ClinicsGeneral hospital9,994FTE
- Madison Metropolitan School DistrictSchool district4,048FTE
- Meriter HospitalGeneral hospital2,351FTE
- Veterans Health AdministrationFederal government · Department of Veterans Affairs2,337
- Madison Area Technical CollegeUniversity or college1,902
- St. Marys HospitalGeneral hospital1,575FTE
- Sun Prairie Area School DistrictSchool district1,331FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 641 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 80,580 people in all across the county; Black Earth has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and federal offices from OPM's federal workforce data (2026); 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
- Cold wavesVery high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Inland floodingRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Dane County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Dane County and the Madison, WI metro.
Black Earth home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Black Earth$388,076
- Wisconsin$337,196
- United States$366,157
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
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Black Earth7
Zip codes with a Black Earth address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Black Earth — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.