Cottage Grove, Wisconsin.
Typical home $474,163 (+3.4% in a year), asking rent $1,745 (+1.4%). Madison, WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,351 (+119%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $15,732 +3%
- $458,431$474,163 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $110,749 +30%
- $363,414$474,163 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.
- Cottage Grove$2,489
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Cottage Grove, WI rose 3.4% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Cottage Grove, WI rose 1.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Cottage Grove runs $1,827/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,847 in Feb 2025.
That is $3,572 a month against $1,745 rent: a $2,427 mortgage payment, plus $639 property tax and $506 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Cottage Grove
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$3,572
- Renting$1,745
- Mortgage only$2,427
Property tax · $639/mo 1.63% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Dane County, WI
Insurance & upkeep · $506/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 Cottage Grove, Dane County, Wisconsin
Cottage Grove is a village of 7,303 people in Dane County. Half its households earn more than $139,313 a year and half less, against $89,975 across Dane County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 70% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 30% 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 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. Cottage Grove is a village in Dane County, a few miles from Madison, and it is home to a fairly young population with a median age on the younger side for a place where many homeowners settle. Incomes here run well above the county's, and relatively few residents live below the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though typical home values and rents are both on the higher side. A large share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January highs staying below freezing, and summers are pleasantly warm, with moisture spread through the year as both rain and snow.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, or in banking, insurance and property. A good number work from home, and the typical commute is a moderate one. Among the largest workplaces in Cottage Grove are Johnson Health Tech North America, Shared Medical Services and Atlantis Valley Foods. Unemployment across Dane County is low and has edged up only slightly over the past year, while the number of jobs has grown a little.
Things to do. Lake Kegonsa State Park, a protected area a short drive away, offers lakeside walking and time outdoors. Olbrich Botanical Gardens, also a short drive away, is a botanical garden suited to a quiet afternoon. For an evening out, the Overture Center for the Arts is a short drive away, and Lake Monona is a short drive away for time by the water.
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- 3,549households
- 60%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 17%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 27° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 62°. About 52 inches of snow and 37 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Madison Dane Regional Airport weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Cottage Grove
- Shared Medical ServicesMagnetic resonance imaging centers523
- Johnson Health Tech North AmericaSporting and recreational goods500
- Johnson Health Tech TradingSporting and recreational goods163
- Atlantis Valley FoodsFood service contractors, cafeteria130
- AlciviaOffice administrative services113
- Hydrite Chemical CoOther chemical and allied products merchant wholesalers92
- AlciviaFuel dealers35
- Hydrite Chemical CoOther chemical and allied products merchant wholesalers27
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,648 people in all. 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.
Cottage Grove home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Cottage Grove$474,163
- Wisconsin$337,196
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Cottage Grove 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.
- Cottage Grove28.63%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Cottage Grove42
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Cottage Grove14
Zip codes with a Cottage Grove address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Cottage Grove — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.