Superior, Wisconsin.
Typical home $233,487 (+4.5% in a year), asking rent $1,126 (+15.3%). Duluth, MN-WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$722 (+143%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $10,021 +4%
- $223,466$233,487 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $58,916 +34%
- $174,571$233,487 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.
- Superior$1,226
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Superior, WI rose 4.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Superior, WI rose 15.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Superior runs $595/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $684 in May 2024.
That is $1,721 a month against $1,126 rent: a $1,226 mortgage payment, plus $246 property tax and $250 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Superior
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$1,721
- Renting$1,126
- Mortgage only$1,226
Property tax · $246/mo 1.26% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Douglas County, WI
Insurance & upkeep · $250/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 Superior, Douglas County, Wisconsin
Superior is a city of 26,751 people in Douglas County. Half its households earn more than $64,216 a year and half less, against $75,099 across Douglas County; 13% of its people live below the poverty line. 61% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 39% are rented. Unemployment in Superior was 4.6% in August 2026, and Douglas County had 2.5% fewer 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 26 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. Superior is a city in Douglas County, Wisconsin, and a fairly small one. Incomes here run below the county's, and a good share of households fall under the poverty line. Most homes are lived in by their owners, though renting is common too. Winters are long, cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are mild and pleasantly warm in July.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, restaurants and hotels, and manufacturing also employing a good number. Among the largest workplaces in Superior are the Superior School District, the University of Wisconsin-Superior and St Marys Hospital Superior. Unemployment has risen over the past year, and Douglas County has fewer jobs than it did a year earlier. Commutes are short, and a small group of people work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, Fairlawn Mansion is a museum, and the Nemadji River runs close by. A short drive away you will find the Lake Superior Zoo and the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. For more time outdoors, Pattison State Park is a protected area a longer drive away.
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- 11,956households
- 29%of adults have a degree
- 13%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Douglas County had 15,643 jobs in 2025, 2.5% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 22° and lows near 6°; warmest in July, with highs near 76° and lows near 58°. About 56 inches of snow and 31 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Superior weather station, 2 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Superior
- Halvor Lines, Inc. SuperiorTrucking, general freight, long-distance, truckload710
- Superior School DistrictSchool district649FTE
- University of Wisconsin-SuperiorUniversity or college385
- St Marys Hospital SuperiorCritical access hospital263FTE
- Superior RefineryPetroleum refineries263
- Jeff Foster TruckingTrucking, general freight, long-distance, truckload190
- Charter Next GenerationFilm, plastics, packaging, manufacturing160
- Menards"home centers"159
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 34 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 3,552 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
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Douglas 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 Douglas County and the Duluth, MN-WI metro.
Superior home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Superior$233,487
- 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 3 Superior listings, and the typical home goes pending in 8 days — 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.
- Superior32.14%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Superior8
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Superior69
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Superior34
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Superior$239,780
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Superior101.46%
Zip codes with a Superior address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Superior — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.