Onalaska, Wisconsin.
Typical home $364,870 (+4.0% in a year), asking rent $1,394 (+2.9%). La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$984 (+106%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,942 +4%
- $350,928$364,870 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $68,027 +23%
- $296,843$364,870 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.
- Onalaska$1,915
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Onalaska, WI rose 4.0% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Onalaska, WI rose 2.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Onalaska runs $1,379/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $1,403 in May 2024.
That is $2,773 a month against $1,394 rent: a $1,915 mortgage payment, plus $467 property tax and $391 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Onalaska
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$2,773
- Renting$1,394
- Mortgage only$1,915
Property tax · $467/mo 1.54% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for La Crosse County, WI
Insurance & upkeep · $391/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 Onalaska, La Crosse County, Wisconsin
Onalaska is a city of 18,803 people in La Crosse County. Half its households earn more than $85,867 a year and half less, against $73,013 across La Crosse County; 6% of its people live below the poverty line. 63% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 37% are rented. Unemployment in La Crosse County was 2.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.8% 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. Onalaska is a city in La Crosse County, Wisconsin, and a fairly settled one: most homes are lived in by their owners, and residents tend to be somewhat older than the typical American. Household incomes run above the county's, and a good many adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, and summers turn warm in July, with a fair amount of rain and melted snow through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing and the building trades also employing a good share. Walmart, the Onalaska School District and Mathy Construction Company are among the largest workplaces in the city. Commutes are short, and unemployment across La Crosse County has stayed low.
Things to do. Lake Onalaska is a reservoir a short drive away, and Pettibone Park is a park close by as well. For more room to roam, Coulee Experimental State Forest is a protected area a short drive away, while Great River Bluffs State Park is a longer drive.
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- 9,002households
- 42%of adults have a degree
- 6%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 11%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. La Crosse County had 70,077 jobs in 2025, 0.8% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 27° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 85° and lows near 64°. About 46 inches of snow and 35 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the La Crosse Municipal Airport weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Onalaska
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters456
- Onalaska School DistrictSchool district403FTE
- Mathy Construction CompanyStone, crushed and broken, mining and/or beneficiating338
- TargetDiscount department stores248
- Festival FoodsRetail - grocery235
- Woodman's Food MarketGrocery stores233
- L.B. White OnalaskaHeaters, swimming pool, manufacturing189
- Menards"home centers"175
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 26 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,328 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
- LandslidesRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Strong windRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across La Crosse County, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 La Crosse County and the La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN metro.
Onalaska home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Onalaska$364,870
- 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 4 Onalaska listings, and the typical home goes pending in 10 days — the market is heating up.
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.
- Onalaska24.18%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Onalaska10
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Onalaska54
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Onalaska25
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Onalaska$354,396
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Onalaska address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Onalaska — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.