Elmwood Park, WI

Elmwood Park is older as a neighborhood than as a village. The village's history page dates the first homes to 1929 and 1930 on Taylor and Lathrop avenues, the two roads that still carry most of the village. Taylor Avenue began as the Racine and Wilmot Plank Road, later Wilmot Road, and took its current name on September 18, 1923. Lathrop Avenue is named for A.H. Lathrop, who owned a quarter-section of land along it.

Growth came in the 1930s through the 1950s, and in the late 1950s a study committee formed to explore becoming a village. The history page says Elmwood incorporated as a village on June 27, 1960, following a court battle, taking the land out of the Town of Mount Pleasant. It also says a state law adopted after the proceedings began would have required a village near a city the size of Racine to be 25 times larger, and calls Elmwood Park the last small suburban village in the state to incorporate. The name had to change from Elmwood to Elmwood Park because a Village of Elmwood already existed in northwest Wisconsin. In 1960 there were 120 homes.

The name came from the trees. The same page says each early home planted several elms, and that the village counted 379 elm trees in 1960 and 256 by 1964 as Dutch elm disease spread. Only a few remain.

Two later steps finished the map. Homes were originally on septic systems, and a sanitary sewer system was installed in 1976. That made the last section, called Elmwood 7, buildable: a 17-acre tract that had been mostly swampland, developed in the late 1970s along the old Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad right-of-way. It extended North and South Elmwood Drive, created East Elmwood Drive and Oak Tree Lane, and added 51 homes. The history page puts the village today at 205 homes and one vacant lot.

Elmwood Park is very small. The village's history page gives it 105.59 acres and 2.45 miles of roads, between the City of Racine and what is now the Village of Mount Pleasant. The Census 2024 gazetteer gives 0.151 square miles of land. The 2020 census counted 510 people per Wikipedia, and the Wisconsin Department of Revenue's 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report puts it at 501 people and $64.3 million of full value.

The streets are a short list. Taylor Avenue and Lathrop Avenue are the main roads. The rest of the village is Maryland Avenue, North, South and East Elmwood Drive, Oak Tree Lane and McArthur Place, per the village history. The Elmwood 7 section along the old railroad right-of-way, now a bicycle trail, is the newest part.

Homes use Racine, WI mailing addresses; the October 2026 listings in the village carried ZIP code 53405, which is shared with large parts of the City of Racine. Coming from Lake County, Illinois, where the mailing town usually matches the tax bill, the buyers I talk to don't expect that, and the municipality line on the tax bill is the only thing I'd trust. Elmwood Park's tax rate is about two-thirds of the City of Racine's, so the line matters.

Village operations run from the Taylor Complex at 3131 Taylor Avenue. The village FAQ says the administration office is in Building 1 and the meeting hall and gym are in Building 3. The history page notes that the complex sits just over the line in the City of Racine but is owned and operated by the village, with five buildings constructed in the 1960s, some available for rent.

Elmwood Park has its own zoning code. The village's zoning chapter creates four districts: R-1 Single Family Residential, B-1 Neighborhood Business, P-1 Public and Semi-Public, and PRD-1 Planned Residential. Any land annexed into the village starts as R-1 until the board says otherwise, and the Plan Commission must approve building permits for any new structure.

R-1 lots must be at least 85 feet wide and 120 feet deep. The front yard must be at least 35 feet, or 60 feet on Taylor Avenue, with side yards of at least 10 feet and a rear yard of at least 25 feet, both widening to 50 feet where they abut a different district. On a lot between two existing houses, the front setback is the average of the neighbors'.

The code sets minimum house sizes, which is unusual for a village of older homes. A one-floor house needs at least 1,500 square feet of living space, a two-story at least 1,850 square feet with at least 1,000 on the ground floor, and a split-level at least 2,000 square feet. Basements, attics, garages, breezeways and porches don't count. Every garage must hold at least two cars and be attached to the house.

The Planned Residential district allows condominiums or clustered single-family lots on a project of at least 100,000 square feet. With one vacant lot left in the village, the practical use of these rules is for additions and rebuilds: the minimum sizes and the attached two-car garage rule shape what a teardown can become.

Elmwood Park is all detached single-family houses. The 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts every housing unit as a detached house, and 279 of 284 occupied homes as owner-occupied. The survey's total of 297 units carries a margin of plus or minus 174, so I use the village's own count of 205 homes and treat the survey as a guide to shape only.

The houses date mostly from the 1950s through the 1970s. The survey's median year built is 1968, the same as Racine County's, with the largest groups from the 1970s and the 1950s, a smaller group from the 1960s and about 22 from the 1980s, matching the village's history of a postwar build-out and the late-1970s Elmwood 7 section. The median house has 7.2 rooms, against 5.7 for the county.

The survey's median owner-estimated value is $229,300, plus or minus $25,696, against $251,400 for the county. That is a five-year average of owner estimates and lags the current market badly here; the market section's Zillow and Redfin figures are well above it.

A 1950s ranch or 1970s two-story brings its own inspection list: the sewer lateral (the system went in in 1976, so many laterals connect older plumbing to it), the electrical panel, the roof and the original windows. The expectation I most often reset with Illinois buyers is that a well-kept 1960s house in a small village has no near-term spending ahead of it.

Elmwood Park is a mid-priced market, not a luxury one, and it has been rising faster than the county. Zillow's typical home value for Elmwood Park was $349,825 in August 2026, up 5.8% from $330,701 a year earlier and 13.9% over two years. Racine County as a whole was $318,751, the City of Racine $222,732 and the Village of Mount Pleasant $350,292 in the same month. Zillow's top-tier index, the most expensive third of homes, was $415,276.

Sales picked up in the last year. Redfin's public monthly data counts 15 Elmwood Park sales in the 12 months from June 2025 through May 2026, against 9 the year before. Monthly medians ranged from $266,000 in April 2026, a single sale that went in 2 days at about 133% of its list price, to $492,500 in September 2025 on two sales. In May 2026 the median was $450,000 on one sale. Inventory never rose above three homes.

On October 5, 2026 Coldwell Banker's Elmwood Park page showed two listings: a three-bedroom, 1,372-square-foot house on Maryland Avenue at $299,900 and a four-bedroom, 1,152-square-foot house on North Elmwood Drive at $325,000.

How I'd price here: with one or two sales a month and no more than three homes for sale at a time, a well-priced house moves fast, and the comparables that matter are Elmwood Park's own recent sales, then nearby Mount Pleasant streets with similar houses. Zillow's index and the Redfin medians agree on direction, but a single sale can move a month's median by $100,000.

Wisconsin property tax uses different words from Illinois. The local assessor sets an assessed value, the Department of Revenue sets a full (equalized) value for each municipality, and the ratio between them is the assessment level. Rates are quoted in mills, dollars per $1,000 of assessed value.

The DOR's 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report puts Elmwood Park at an assessment level of 0.98, a gross rate of 1.687% of full value, and an effective rate of 1.527% after the state school levy credit. The whole village is in Racine Unified, so this is not an average of several districts. For comparison, the same report gives the City of Racine an effective rate of 2.218%, the Village of Mount Pleasant 1.566% and Racine County overall 1.546%.

A worked example. On a $349,825 primary residence, Zillow's August 2026 typical value, the 1.527% effective rate gives about $5,342 a year before the lottery and gaming credit. The DOR's 2025 lottery credit report says that credit applies only to a primary residence and is a $27,000 credit value times the school tax rate, with a statewide average of $190 for 2025-26. With a credit near that average, the bill would be roughly $5,150. The same house in the City of Racine, at 2.218%, would be about $7,760 before credits, a difference of more than $2,400 a year.

The village's tax page says bills can be viewed on the Racine County website and paid in person on Mondays and Thursdays from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., by drop box at Building 1, or by mail to 3131 Taylor Avenue. Wisconsin's real estate transfer fee is $0.30 per $100 of value, customarily paid by the seller. This is general information, not tax advice. Your bill depends on your parcel, credits and the assessor.

A village of 205 homes buys most of its services. The village's contracted services page says that, because of its size, Elmwood Park contracts with surrounding governments and companies, and that providers can change.

Water comes from the Racine Water Utility, which bills owners directly if they are connected, per the village FAQ. The village history dates the sanitary sewer system to 1976. On any listing I'd confirm the water connection, since the FAQ's wording leaves room for a house that isn't on city water, and have the sewer lateral scoped.

Trash, recycling and yard waste come from Johns Disposal: trash every Monday, recycling every other Monday, and yard waste in paper bags on recycling days from April to early December. Health services are contracted with the Racine County Health Department. Electrical permits go through a contracted inspector, and building and plumbing permits through the village office.

The village hall and gym at the Taylor Complex can be rented, per the FAQ. The village also bans the sale, possession for sale or use of fireworks within its limits.

All of Elmwood Park is in the Racine Unified School District. DOR's 2025 school-district tables put the village's entire $64.3 million of value in Racine Unified, and the village FAQ confirms it.

Racine Unified enrolled 15,781."

I could not confirm Elmwood Park's current school assignments. The village history says that when the neighborhood's old Beebe School closed in 1973, its pupils were reassigned to Johnson and Hansche schools, but that is more than 50 years old, and Racine Unified's boundary pages blocked automated access when I checked. Assignment follows the parcel and the district's current boundary map, so confirm every address with the district before counting on a school.

Elmwood Park has no large parks of its own, but it runs a small calendar of public events at the Taylor Complex lawn. The village's Tunes on Taylor page lists free evening concerts from 6 to 8 p.m. at 3131 Taylor Avenue, with 2026 dates on June 9, July 14 and August 11, and food from a local vendor. The village's car and bike show page describes the 9th annual show in 2026, with $10 pre-registration, $15 at the door and free admission for spectators.

The village's one long-distance amenity is a trail. The village history says the Chicago North Shore and Milwaukee Railroad, which ran along the east side of the Elmwood 7 section, ceased operation in December 1963, and its right-of-way is now a bicycle trail.

For lakefront, the nearest options are the City of Racine's Lake Michigan parks and beaches a few miles east, and the Wind Point Lighthouse grounds and Shoop Park north of the city, covered in the Wind Point guide.

Elmwood Park is a short drive from a train station. I ran free-flow routes on the OSRM routing engine, which uses OpenStreetMap roads and no traffic, from the center of the village on October 5, 2026. Treat these as best-case estimates.

From Elmwood Park, Amtrak's Sturtevant station is about 5 road miles and 11 minutes, downtown Racine about 4 miles and 9 minutes, and Metra's Kenosha terminal about 9 miles and 20 minutes. Vernon Hills is about 42 miles and 57 minutes. Downtown Chicago is about 68 miles and 90 minutes, and O'Hare about 65 miles and 101 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 32 miles and 48 minutes, and Mitchell Airport about 26 miles and 39 minutes.

In Amtrak's schedule feed for the week of October 12, 2026, the Sturtevant station has 6 weekday Hiawatha trains to Chicago Union Station, the first at 7:43 a.m., with rides of 76 to 84 minutes, and 6 toward Milwaukee. In Metra's GTFS data for the same week, Kenosha has 10 weekday trains to Ogilvie Transportation Center, at 92 or 102 minutes, and 8 each way on weekends.

For a Lake County, Illinois buyer, Elmwood Park is under an hour from Vernon Hills on a clear road, and a downtown Chicago trip by Hiawatha is an 11-minute drive to Sturtevant plus a 76- to 84-minute ride. Rush-hour traffic adds time to every driving number.

Elmwood Park itself is built out, with one vacant lot left per the village history, so change here comes from its neighbors. The largest is in Mount Pleasant, which borders the village. WPR reported on September 29, 2026 that Microsoft's first Mount Pleasant data center, known as Fairwater, is operational, that more than 550 people are working on the campus per the Village of Mount Pleasant, and that construction of a second data center is expected to finish in 2028. The campus is several miles west of Elmwood Park, along the I-94 corridor.

For a homeowner, that matters mostly through demand for housing near Racine and through Mount Pleasant's tax base, not through anything on Elmwood Park's own streets. I'd watch Zillow's index for Elmwood Park and Mount Pleasant together over the next year.

The village's contracted services page says the Racine County Sheriff's Office provides law enforcement in Elmwood Park, and the village contracts with the City of Racine Fire Department for fire and emergency medical service, which bills users for rescue squad calls. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. Anyone who wants the data can ask the Sheriff's Office or look up reported figures on the FBI Crime Data Explorer.

Very few homes are for sale at once, often one to three, so waiting is part of buying here. The houses are mostly from the 1950s through the 1970s. Services are contracted, so the provider list can change. The public schools are Racine Unified, with assignments I couldn't confirm. There is no lake, no large park and no commercial district inside the village. And it is not a luxury market: in the 12 months through May 2026 the highest monthly median was $492,500.

I'd pull the tax bill first and confirm the municipality, the water connection and the school assignment for the exact parcel before falling for a house.