Ripon, Wisconsin.
Typical home $234,813 (+6.1% in a year). Fond du Lac, WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$751 (+156%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $13,598 +6%
- $221,215$234,813 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $76,585 +48%
- $158,228$234,813 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.
- Ripon$1,232
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 9 years.
Typical home values in Ripon, WI rose 6.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Ripon, Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin
Ripon is a city of 7,863 people in Fond du Lac County. Half its households earn more than $54,763 a year and half less, against $74,275 across Fond du Lac County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 64% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 36% are rented. Unemployment in Fond du Lac County was 3.2% in August 2026, and the county had 0.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Ripon is a small city in Fond du Lac County, home to Ripon College and a long-settled downtown. Household incomes here run below the county's, and more people live below the poverty line than the county's income level might suggest. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though fewer than in many small Wisconsin towns. The commute is short, and a good number of residents work from home. Winters are cold, with highs well below freezing in January and a good deal of snow, while summers turn warm in July. Rain and melted snow add up to a fair amount over the year.
Work. Manufacturing is the largest kind of work among residents, followed by schools, hospitals and social care, then shops, and then restaurants, hotels and entertainment. Among the biggest workplaces in Ripon are Seneca Foods, which cans vegetables and fruit, Alliance Laundry Systems, a maker of commercial machines, and Ripon College. Unemployment across Fond du Lac County is a little higher than a year ago, and the county has lost a small number of jobs over the past year.
Things to do. Sisson's Peony Gardens, a garden, and the Thrasher Opera House, a theatre, are both a short drive away. Green Lake and Rush Lake are also a short drive away, for time by the water. For a longer outing, the EAA Aviation Museum is a longer drive away.
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- 3,282households
- 24%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 19 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Fond du Lac County had 44,880 jobs in 2025, 0.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 25° and lows near 10°; warmest in July, with highs near 80° and lows near 60°. About 38 inches of snow and 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Ripon Northeast weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ripon
- Alliance Laundry Systems - Plant 1Floor sanding, washing, and polishing machines, commercial-type, manufacturing1,901
- Ripon Area School DistrictSchool district240FTE
- Ripon CollegeUniversity or college211
- Hy-VeeSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores202
- Walsworth Publishing323117 books printing197
- Alliance Laundry Systems - Plant 2Floor sanding, washing, and polishing machines, commercial-type, manufacturing188
- Ripon Medical CenterCritical access hospital128FTE
- AFKFoundry casting molds manufacturing68
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 12 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,013 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- HailRelatively moderate
- TornadoesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively 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 Fond du Lac 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 Fond du Lac County and the Fond du Lac, WI metro.
Ripon home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ripon$234,813
- 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 Ripon 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.
- Ripon28.18%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ripon32
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ripon10
Zip codes with a Ripon address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ripon — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.