Wales, Wisconsin.
Typical home $571,260 (+5.6% in a year). Milwaukee-Waukesha, WI metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$1,654 (+123%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $30,344 +6%
- $540,916$571,260 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $150,940 +36%
- $420,319$571,260 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.
- Wales$2,998
- Wisconsin$1,770
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 11 years.
Typical home values in Wales, WI rose 5.6% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Wales, Waukesha County, Wisconsin
Wales is a village of 2,862 people in Waukesha County. Half its households earn more than $109,024 a year and half less, against $106,076 across Waukesha County; 4% of its people live below the poverty line. 85% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 15% 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 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Wales is a village in Waukesha County, home to a small community of residents. Most households own the place they live in, at a higher share than in many towns, and typical incomes run a little above the county's, with fewer families living in poverty than is common. Winters are cold and snowy, with January the coldest month, while summers are pleasantly warm, and precipitation is spread through the year as both rain and melted snow.
Work. Residents work mainly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in banks, insurance and property, and in shops. Among the largest workplaces in Wales are the Kettle Moraine School District, The Legend at Brandybrook, a golf and country club, and Roundy's, a grocery operator. Unemployment in the county is low, and a good many residents work from home, while the typical commute is of moderate length.
Things to do. Close to home, Nixon Park is a park a short drive away, and Lower Nashotah Lake and Upper Nashotah Lake are both lakes that are also a short drive away. For a longer outing, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Milwaukee County Zoo are both a longer drive away, and Aztalan State Park, an archaeological site, makes a good day trip.
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- 989households
- 51%of adults have a degree
- 4%below the poverty line
- 23 mintypical commute
- 19%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 28° and lows near 12°; warmest in July, with highs near 81° and lows near 60°. About 37 inches of snow and 36 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Waukesha Wwtp weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Wales
- Kettle Moraine School DistrictSchool district446FTE
- The Legend at BrandybrookGolf and country clubs201
- Roundy'sSupermarkets and other grocery except convenience stores110
- Bob Anderson BuildersBuilding framing93
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 3 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 404 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
- 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.
Wales home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Wales$571,260
- 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.
- Wales10
Zip codes with a Wales address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Wales — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.