Colby, Wisconsin.
Typical home $220,245 (+9.2% in a year). Wausau-Weston, WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$666 (+136%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,543 +9%
- $201,702$220,245 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $65,289 +42%
- $154,956$220,245 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.
- Colby$1,156
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 10 years.
Typical home values in Colby, WI rose 9.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Colby, Marathon County, Wisconsin
Colby is a city of 1,952 people in Marathon County. 53% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 47% are rented. Unemployment in Marathon County was 3.0% in August 2026, and the county had 1.2% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Colby is a small city in Marathon County, Wisconsin, where residents are somewhat younger than in many small Midwestern towns and about as many homes are rented as are lived in by their owners. Incomes are modest and a good share of households live below the poverty line, and typical home values are well below those in much of the country. Winters are long, cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are pleasantly warm and the year brings a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Most residents work in manufacturing, in shops, in schools, hospitals and social care, or in banks, insurance and property. Among the largest workplaces in Colby are Loos Machine and Automation, which makes machinery for cheese processing, the Colby School District, and Colonial Health Services, a skilled nursing provider. Commutes are short for most people, and only a small number work from home.
Things to do. Several places for time outdoors are a longer drive away. Mead Wildlife Area is a park, Foxfire Botanical Gardens is a botanical garden, and the Black River is one of the area's rivers. For something different, Marshfield Motor Speedway is a race track, also a longer drive away.
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- 689households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 19%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Marathon County had 69,778 jobs in 2025, 1.2% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 21° and lows near 2°; warmest in July, with highs near 79° and lows near 56°. About 51 inches of snow and 34 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Owen 1E weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Colby
- Loos Machine and AutomationCheese processing machinery manufacturing139
- Colby School DistrictSchool district128FTE
- Colonial Health ServicesSkilled nursing facilities78
- Kelley SupplyAgents and brokers, durable goods, wholesale trade44
- Sonida Senior LivingAssisted living and memory care33
- Smith Bros. Meats24
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 318 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
- LightningRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Winter weatherRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Marathon 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 Marathon County and the Wausau-Weston, WI metro.
Colby home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Colby$220,245
- 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.
- Colby8
Zip codes with a Colby address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Colby — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.