De Forest, Wisconsin.
Typical home $449,090 (+3.1% in a year), asking rent $1,741 (+1.6%). Madison, WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,256 (+114%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,373 +3%
- $435,717$449,090 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $93,480 +26%
- $355,610$449,090 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.
- De Forest$2,357
- 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 De Forest, WI rose 3.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in De Forest, WI rose 1.6% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in De Forest runs $1,706/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,713 in Feb 2025.
That is $3,447 a month against $1,741 rent: a $2,357 mortgage payment, plus $609 property tax and $481 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — De Forest
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$3,447
- Renting$1,741
- Mortgage only$2,357
Property tax · $609/mo 1.63% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Dane County, WI
Insurance & upkeep · $481/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 De Forest, Dane County, Wisconsin
De Forest is a village of 10,811 people in Dane County. Half its households earn more than $106,419 a year and half less, against $89,975 across Dane County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 78% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 22% 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 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. De Forest is a village in Dane County, Wisconsin, on the northern side of the Madison area. Its households earn more than the county as a whole, and most homes are lived in by their owners rather than rented. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are warm and July is the warmest.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in professional and business services, in shops and in manufacturing. Some of the largest workplaces in De Forest are Hooper, which builds electric power transmission lines and towers, the De Forest Area School District, and EVCO Plastics. A good share of residents have a four-year degree, and a fair number work from home.
Things to do. Olbrich Botanical Gardens and Lake Mendota are both a short drive away, one for walking among planted gardens and the other for time on the water. Governor Nelson State Park, also a short drive away, is protected land along the lake. For a longer outing, the University of Wisconsin–Madison Arboretum is a botanical garden a longer drive away.
Report a mistake
- 4,614households
- 42%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 26 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 26° and lows near 9°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 60°. About 43 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Arlington weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in De Forest
- HooperElectric power transmission line and tower construction1,297
- De Forest Area School DistrictSchool district603FTE
- EVCO Plastics - MED&HQHardware, plastics, manufacturing246
- American Packaging Corporation - DeforestPrint shops, gravure150
- American GirlToys merchant wholesalers147
- Roundy'sSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores126
- EVCO Plastics - DeFHardware, plastics, manufacturing121
- RHD PlumbingPlumbing contractors110
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 25 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,069 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 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.
De Forest home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- De Forest$449,090
- Wisconsin$337,196
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 De Forest 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.
- De Forest28.80%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- De Forest41
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- De Forest17
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Zip codes with a De Forest address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls De Forest — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.