Brookfield, Wisconsin.
Typical home $524,360 (+4.2% in a year), asking rent $2,222 (+2.2%). Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,498 (+119%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $21,124 +4%
- $503,236$524,360 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $129,438 +33%
- $394,922$524,360 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.
- Brookfield$2,752
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Brookfield, WI rose 4.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Brookfield, WI rose 2.2% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Brookfield runs $1,592/mo more than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $3,813 a month against $2,222 rent: a $2,752 mortgage payment, plus $500 property tax and $561 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Brookfield
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$3,813
- Renting$2,222
- Mortgage only$2,752
Property tax · $500/mo 1.14% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Waukesha County, WI
Insurance & upkeep · $561/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Living in Brookfield, Waukesha County, Wisconsin
Brookfield is a city of 41,464 people in Waukesha County. Half its households earn more than $129,548 a year and half less, against $106,076 across Waukesha County; 3% of its people live below the poverty line. 83% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 17% are rented. Unemployment in Brookfield was 3.4% in August 2026, and Waukesha County had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then professional services.
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. Brookfield is a suburban city on the west side of the Milwaukee area, and it is a settled, well-off place. Households here earn more than across Waukesha County as a whole, very few residents live below the poverty line, and most homes are lived in by their owners. Residents tend to be somewhat older than in many American towns, and a large majority of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January highs well below freezing, and summers are warm, with July the warmest month. A good deal of rain and melted snow falls over the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in manufacturing, and in banking, insurance and property. Among the largest workplaces in Brookfield are Milwaukee Tool Corporate, the Elmbrook School District and the Ascension hospital campus. The typical commute is fairly short, and a good number of people work from home. Unemployment is low and has edged up a little over the past year.
Things to do. Most of what draws people out lies a short drive away in and around Milwaukee. Milwaukee County Zoo is a short drive away, as is Mitchell Park Horticultural Conservatory, a botanical garden. The Milwaukee Art Museum is a longer drive away, and is the best known of the nearby places. The Root River, also a short drive off, is a place to be near water.
Report a mistake
- 16,127households
- 64%of adults have a degree
- 3%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 22%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Waukesha County had 248,662 jobs in 2025, 0.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 28° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 61°. About 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Brookfield Wwtp weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Brookfield
- Milwaukee Tool CorporateHandtools, power-driven, manufacturing2,249
- Elmbrook School DistrictSchool district1,016FTE
- Wimil103 Ascension SE WI - Elmbrook CampusGeneral medical and surgical hospitals513
- AT&TWired telecommunications carriers290
- Founders 3 Real Management CompanyProperty owners' associations270
- Northern ManagementProperty management265
- Common Links ConstructionFinishing drywall contractors223
- TargetDiscount department stores202
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 61 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 7,863 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); 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 wavesRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Waukesha 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 Waukesha County and the Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI metro.
Brookfield home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Brookfield$524,360
- 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 5 Brookfield listings — 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.
- Brookfield19.66%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Brookfield134
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Brookfield48
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Brookfield$495,604
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Brookfield address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Brookfield — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in Brookfield
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 53045 | Brookfield | 23,329 | $2,173 | $545,992 |
| 53005 | Brookfield | 21,675 | $2,281 | $504,147 |