Ottawa, Wisconsin.
Typical home $645,058 (+8.2% in a year). Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,828 (+117%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $49,090 +8%
- $595,968$645,058 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $149,357 +30%
- $495,701$645,058 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.
- Ottawa$3,386
- 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 Ottawa, WI rose 8.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ottawa, Waukesha County, Wisconsin
Ottawa is a town of 3,646 people in Waukesha County. Half its households earn more than $153,018 a year and half less, against $106,076 across Waukesha County; 1% of its people live below the poverty line. 98% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 2% are rented. Unemployment in Waukesha County was 3.1% in August 2026, and the county had 0.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in professional services, then schools and health care.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ottawa is a small town in Waukesha County where nearly every home is lived in by its owners. Household incomes run well above the county's, very few residents live below the poverty line, and homes are valued well above what is typical in most places. A large share of adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are cold, with January the coldest month and plenty of snow, while July brings warm days and the year sees a fair amount of rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work in professional and business services, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in the building trades. Some work from home, and the typical commute is a fairly long one. Across Waukesha County, some of the largest workplaces are Kohl's, Waukesha Memorial Hospital and Milwaukee Tool Corporate, and unemployment there has stayed low.
Things to do. Wisconsin Brewing Company Park, a stadium, and Lower Nashotah Lake are both a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to Geneva Lake, a lake popular for time on the water, and to the Milwaukee Art Museum for a day in the city.
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- 1,435households
- 44%of adults have a degree
- 1%below the poverty line
- 27 mintypical commute
- 13%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 27° and lows near 11°; warmest in July, with highs near 82° and lows near 60°. About 51 inches of snow and 38 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Sullivan 3SE weather station, 4 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Waukesha County
- Kohl's3,907
- Milwaukee Tool CorporateHandtools, power-driven, manufacturing2,249
- Waukesha Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital1,600FTE
- Froedtert Health1,530
- Waukesha School DistrictSchool district1,463FTE
- Pieper ElectricLow voltage electrical work1,460
- QuadGraphicsCommercial printer1,268
- TargetDiscount department stores1,167
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 739 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 90,285 people in all across the county; Ottawa has none of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and school districts 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.
Ottawa home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ottawa$645,058
- 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.
- Ottawa12
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ottawa6
Zip codes with a Ottawa address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ottawa — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.