Glendale, WI

Glendale's history runs along the river. The city's history page says that before the old Town of Milwaukee built its first meeting hall in 1872, the town board met in a gristmill on the west bank of the Milwaukee River near the waterfall in what is now Kletzsch Park. The 1872 town hall still stands beside the modern city buildings on North Milwaukee River Parkway.

The rural crossroads came first. Wikipedia's Glendale entry describes Good Hope as a stagecoach stop on Green Bay Road in the late 1840s, with a tavern, a school and later a railroad station, and the city places it at what is now Good Hope Road and Green Bay Avenue. The tiny Milwaukee Union Cemetery at 5980 North Port Washington Road, with about 100 graves, many unmarked, is kept by the city as its link to those first farms.

Glendale exists because it fought Milwaukee. The city history says the City of Milwaukee resisted Glendale's first incorporation attempt in 1946, and that Glendale won a long court fight after the 1950 census and incorporated as a city on December 28, 1950, with 3,100 people. At incorporation it already had commercial development, heavy industry, some farms and single-family neighborhoods.

Growth came fast after that. Wikipedia records that Bayshore opened on the city's eastern edge in 1954 and that the population roughly tripled between 1950 and 1960 as Interstate 43 was built. The state's 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report uses a January 2025 population of 13,918.

The city marked its 75th anniversary in December 2025. UW-Milwaukee's History Department announced a book for the occasion, *Village, Town, City, Suburb*, co-written by faculty and Glendale writers, covering the place through the 1950 incorporation to now.

Glendale is the inland middle of the North Shore. It borders the City of Milwaukee to the south and west, River Hills and Brown Deer to the north, and Fox Point, Whitefish Bay and Shorewood toward the lake. A Mansion Global report from October 3, 2026 counts seven North Shore communities: Shorewood, Whitefish Bay, Fox Point and Bayside on the lake, and Glendale, River Hills and Brown Deer inland. Glendale has no Lake Michigan frontage. Its water is the Milwaukee River.

It is small and mostly built out. The 2024 Census Gazetteer measures 5.76 square miles of land and 0.2 square miles of water. The city's 2040 Comprehensive Plan, adopted August 3, 2020, says the Milwaukee River weaves northwest to southeast through the city and that it has very few vacant lots left for single-family homes.

The housing mix is wider than its lake neighbors. The 2020-2024 Census ACS counts 6,485 homes. 4,047 of them, about 62%, are detached single-family houses, and 4,233 of the 6,087 occupied homes, about 70%, are owner-occupied. 1,206 units sit in buildings of 50 or more apartments, many of them around Bayshore and the Port Washington Road corridor.

Glendale is also a commercial and job center, which is unusual on the North Shore. Wikipedia notes that unlike the other North Shore suburbs it mixes industry and commerce with housing, and the city's development page names Johnson Controls and the Orthopedic Hospital of Wisconsin among its large employers. That commercial base pays a large share of the property tax, which matters when you read the rates in the tax section below.

Bayshore puts daily errands within a few minutes, and the shared Nicolet High School is the same high school Fox Point, Bayside and River Hills use.

Glendale's 2025 rate near $20.40 per $1,000 of market value is roughly double a Waukesha County suburb like Menomonee Falls, even though it is well under Vernon Hills. The housing is mostly 1950s and 1960s, so budget for updates, and short-term rental plans are off the table under the 2026 ordinance.

Glendale reads best by its two dividing lines. Interstate 43 splits the city into east and west, and the Milwaukee River runs through the middle from northwest to southeast. Wikipedia's city entry sums up the land use simply: the southern areas are mainly industrial and higher-density housing, while the north has medium- to lower-density residential lots.

The housing is mostly mid-century. The 2020-2024 ACS puts the median year built at 1965. 1,728 homes, about 27% of the stock, were built in the 1950s, and another 1,049 in the 1960s and 1,093 in the 1970s. Only 114 have been built since 2010, and 961 predate 1950.

The river corridor holds Glendale's largest lots. The city's Moving to Glendale page describes a range that runs from large suburban lots with frontage on the Milwaukee River to older neighborhoods with turn-of-the-century houses, all a few minutes from Kletzsch, Lincoln and Brown Deer parks. Much of the riverbank itself is county parkland, so true private river frontage is a limited number of lots.

East of I-43 is the Bayshore side. Bayshore sits at Silver Spring Drive and Port Washington Road, and the Census geocoder places its address in ZIP code 53217, the same ZIP as Fox Point, Bayside and River Hills. The streets around it mix single-family blocks, condominiums and the apartment buildings at and near Bayshore.

West of the river is the Green Bay Avenue and Bender Road side, where city hall, the North Shore Fire Department station and the new Richard E. Maslowski Community Park sit, with mailing addresses in the 53209 ZIP. The south edge along Silver Spring Drive and toward Capitol Drive is where Wikipedia places the old industrial corridor, and the comprehensive plan lists the Lydell Corporate Center and the Glendale Technology Center as redevelopment areas there. The north edge along Good Hope Road borders River Hills and Brown Deer.

The 1950s explain most of Glendale's housing. With the population roughly tripling in that decade, the city filled with the postwar houses of the time: modest ranches, Cape Cods and split-levels on suburban lots. The 2020-2024 ACS counts 1,728 homes from the 1950s alone and 439 from the 1940s.

The 1960s and 1970s added both houses and apartments. The same table counts 2,142 homes from those two decades, and the large apartment stock is a big reason Glendale has 1,206 units in buildings of 50 or more and another 508 in buildings of 20 to 49. Condominium buildings near Bayshore and Port Washington Road are part of that count.

The newest housing is concentrated rather than scattered. Since 2000 the ACS counts 550 new homes, and much of that is the apartment and mixed-use construction at Bayshore. The 2006 redevelopment there added 113 apartments, per Wikipedia's Bayshore entry), and the city's development page now counts more than 400 residential units at Bayshore.

Older houses come with older systems, and here a Glendale-specific item belongs on the list. The city's private well page says more than 600 private wells were known in the city at one time, from before the public water utility existed, and that some older homes still have wells in pits or basements. On a pre-1960 house, I'd ask whether an old well is still on the property and whether it was properly abandoned, along with the usual questions about the electrical panel, the sewer lateral, basement water and the roof.

The sewer lateral question is real here. The city's sanitary sewer page says the homeowner owns and maintains the lateral from the house to the main, and that tree roots are a common cause of backups. I'd budget for a camera inspection of the lateral on any older house.

Glendale is not a lake market, and I won't pretend it is. Its waterfront is the Milwaukee River, which Wikipedia describes as running through the center of the city, and which the comprehensive plan says weaves northwest to southeast through it.

Most of the river's edge is public. The plan says that in Glendale most environmental corridors are on county-owned land surrounding the Milwaukee River, which is why Kletzsch Park, Lincoln Park and the Milwaukee River Parkway take up so much of the bank. A private lot that actually touches the water is the exception. The city's own description of river-frontage lots, on its Moving to Glendale page, is the closest thing to a published list, and it names no streets, so each listing has to be checked on the county map.

River lots carry rules that inland lots do not. The comprehensive plan calls for protecting floodplains, wetlands, drainageways and steep slopes through overlay zoning, requires site plans and surveys to show them, restricts new housing below the floodplain elevation, and recommends that the city consider a Milwaukee River overlay. The city has its own floodplain administrator for floodplain determinations and building permits in the regulatory floodplain. Before you plan an addition, a pool or a new deck near the water, call that office first.

Flood insurance is the other conversation. In August 2025, record rainfall flooded large parts of the Milwaukee area, which USA Today, the Journal Sentinel and others covered at the time. I could not fetch a parcel-level flood figure for Glendale, so check the FEMA flood map for any house near the river or its creeks, ask the seller about past water in the basement, and ask the lender early whether flood insurance will be required.

The river is also the best amenity in the city. The Oak Leaf Trail's Milwaukee River Line, which Wikipedia puts at 14 miles from Juneau Park downtown to Brown Deer Park, follows the parkway through Glendale, and the falls at Kletzsch Park are the city's signature view.

Bayshore is the reason many people know Glendale at all. Wikipedia's Bayshore entry) dates it to March 31, 1954, when Bayshore Shopping Center opened with 38 stores. It was enclosed in 1974, redeveloped in 2006 into a mixed-use center with 113 apartments and offices, and then lost four anchors between 2014 and 2018, including Sears and Boston Store.

The second redevelopment was built on a city financing deal. BizTimes reported on June 25, 2019 that the Common Council unanimously approved a plan in which the owner would pay for an estimated $75 million project up front, and the city would reimburse up to $36.7 million from the new property taxes the project generated, in payments of about $2.8 million a year through 2033. The owner also agreed to pay off $56.6 million of tax increment debt left from the 2002 redevelopment, which city officials said would leave Glendale debt free. The assessed value was expected to rise from about $65 million to $200 million.

That deal shows up in the state data. The DOR's 2025 report lists two tax increment districts in Glendale and about $236 million of value inside them, the difference between the city's $2.69 billion full value and its $2.45 billion value outside TIF. Until a district closes, the taxes on that added value go to repaying the project before they reach the general levy.

The rebuilt Bayshore opened in stages. Target replaced Boston Store in 2021 and Total Wine replaced Sports Authority, per Wikipedia, and TMJ4 reported in March 2021 that the city approved four apartment buildings with 315 units on North Lydell Avenue. In February 2026, JLL announced the sale of Bayshore Place, the 113-unit 2006 building at 5699 North Centerpark Way, to a private investor, and the Milwaukee Business Journal's headline put the price at $15 million. JLL describes Bayshore as having more than 80 commercial tenants.

The 2026 tenant turnover is mixed. BizTimes reported in January 2026 that the ACX Cinema entertainment complex closed in October 2025, and that eight new tenants had opened or were coming in 2026, including First Watch, Hotworx, The Little Gym, Nona and Carhartt. The Business Journal reported on September 23, 2026 that Carhartt had set its opening.

For a homeowner, Bayshore is two things: daily convenience within a few minutes of most of the city, and a large commercial tax base. It is also busy, so for a house on the blocks right around it, drive the street on a Saturday before you make an offer.

Zillow's home value index, which estimates the value of a typical home whether it sold or not, puts Glendale at $353,494 for August 2026. That is up 5.3% from $335,743 a year earlier and up 26% from $280,478 in August 2021. Zillow's top-tier index, which tracks the upper third of homes, was $479,669.

The neighbors on the same index show where Glendale sits. For August 2026, Zillow has River Hills at $961,137, Whitefish Bay at $662,001, Bayside at $569,124, Fox Point at $552,985 and Shorewood at $547,978. On the other side, Brown Deer is $292,313 and the City of Milwaukee $227,629. Among the North Shore communities above, only Brown Deer has a lower typical value, and Glendale sits far below its lakefront neighbors.

The census numbers run lower because they lag. The 2020-2024 ACS puts the median value of owner-occupied homes at $282,800, an average of five years of survey answers. 1,226 owner homes, the largest bracket, were valued between $300,000 and $399,999, and 555 between $400,000 and $499,999.

Rent is a real segment here. The ACS median gross rent is $1,432, and roughly 30% of occupied homes are rented.

I'm not using MLS statistics on this page. Wisconsin sold data comes through a different MLS than the Illinois one I work in. For a specific house, the recent sales on the same side of I-43, and on the same side of the river, are the numbers worth using.

Glendale's role is different. It offers North Shore schools and location at a much lower entry price.

The public numbers make that plain. Zillow's top-tier index for Glendale, the upper third of homes, was $479,669 in August 2026. The 2020-2024 ACS counts 154 owner homes valued between $500,000 and $749,999 and none between $750,000 and $2 million. It does count 7 owner homes at $2 million or more. That is a small-sample survey estimate with a wide margin of error, and I would not build a price expectation on it, but it is consistent with a handful of large river properties rather than a luxury submarket.

Where is the upper end? The city describes its largest lots as suburban properties with frontage on the Milwaukee River. I could not find a fetchable public record of a specific 2025 or 2026 Glendale sale above $1 million, so I am not naming streets or prices here. The October 2026 Mansion Global report on the North Shore puts the county's top sales in Fox Point and Whitefish Bay, and notes that the 53217 ZIP, which covers Glendale's east side as well as Fox Point, Bayside and River Hills, was one of Milwaukee County's two most expensive ZIP codes in August 2026 Realtor.com data.

The honest price picture: most of Glendale trades from the mid-$200,000s into the $400,000s, the better river and east-side houses push past $500,000, and true seven-figure properties are rare.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the tax bill is the first thing people compare, and Glendale's needs a careful read. Wisconsin bills are built from a mill rate, the dollars of tax per $1,000 of assessed value. Glendale's rate is high by Wisconsin standards and still well below the North Shore of Illinois.

The city's 2025 tax rate sheet, for bills payable in 2026, gives two rates because the city has two K-8 school districts. In the Glendale-River Hills district, which covers almost all of the city, the gross rate is $23.41 per $1,000 of assessed value: $6.69 city, $6.65 Glendale-River Hills schools, $4.69 Nicolet High, $3.30 county, $1.29 for the sewerage district and $0.80 for the technical college. The state school levy credit takes off $2.30, for a net rate of $21.11. The city assesses at 96.54% of market value, so the net rate equals $20.38 per $1,000 of market value. In the Maple Dale-Indian Hill part of the city the net rate is $21.84, or $21.08 at market value.

The city's tax page lists the eight taxing bodies on the bill. The state's 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report agrees: $60,035,518 of total tax on $2.69 billion of full value, a gross rate of 2.234% and an effective rate of 2.015% after the school levy credit.

Here is a worked example. A $353,500 home, about Zillow's typical value, at $20.38 per $1,000 of market value carries about $7,204 before the two smaller credits. The lottery and gaming credit, for a Wisconsin primary residence only, was $291.90 on the 2025 sheet, and the first dollar credit $97.30. That brings the bill to roughly $6,815. A $480,000 house at the top-tier value would carry about $9,780 before credits.

For comparison, Ownwell's Lake County, Illinois data (updated April 2026) puts Vernon Hills' median effective rate at 2.75%, which on the same $353,500 would be about $9,720. Glendale is cheaper than Vernon Hills on the same house, but it is roughly double the rate of a Waukesha County suburb like Menomonee Falls.

School taxes moved in 2026. Glendale-River Hills voters approved a $5 million operating referendum on April 7, 2026 with 59% of the vote, per WUWM. WUWM's preview said it replaces two expiring $4.5 million referendums and estimated the school rate at $41 per $100,000 of value higher than without it, which affects the December 2026 bill.

When you sell, Wisconsin charges a real estate transfer fee of $3 per $1,000 of value, about $1,060 on a $353,500 sale.

This is general information, not tax advice. Your actual bill depends on the parcel, its assessment, the school district and the credits you qualify for.

Wisconsin's North Shore runs on small K-8 districts that feed a union high school, and Glendale is a textbook case. The DOR's 2025 apportionment puts $2.42 billion of the city's taxable value in the Glendale-River Hills School District and $34.3 million, about 1.4%, in the Maple Dale-Indian Hill School District. All of the city is in the Nicolet Union High School District, and the Census geocoder returns that same Glendale-River Hills and Nicolet pairing for both city hall and Bayshore.

Glendale-River Hills runs two schools.

Most of that district's value is in River Hills, Bayside and Fox Point, and only a sliver is in Glendale.

Nicolet High School is the shared high school. Wikipedia describes it as the only school in its district, serving Glendale, Fox Point, Bayside and River Hills. The school sits in Glendale.

The practical rule: confirm the K-8 district on the tax bill and with the district office before you write an offer, especially near the River Hills border. The Maple Dale-Indian Hill sliver carries a different rate on the tax sheet as well as different schools.

Glendale has almost no empty land, so its changes are redevelopment, roads and rules. The comprehensive plan names its target areas: Bayshore, the Lydell Corporate Center, the Glendale Technology Center, Green Bay Avenue at Mill Road, Good Hope Road at North Port Washington Road, and North Port Washington Road at Calumet Road. It also notes the city has no traditional downtown and recommends looking for land to create a walkable, mixed-use gathering place.

Silver Spring Drive is the road project to know. The city's corridor page says the road and streetscape date from a 1995 plan and need repair, that the city received federal funding in 2023 to rebuild it with a focus on traffic and pedestrian safety, and it carries project updates through September 24, 2026. Separately, a WisDOT release posted by the city on April 28, 2026 says I-43 resurfacing between Bender Road and the Oak Leaf Trail resumed in May 2026, with southbound lanes reduced between Good Hope Road and Silver Spring Drive and completion scheduled for fall 2026.

One housing proposal has been in the pipeline for years. BizTimes reported in July 2024 that New Land Enterprises revised its plan for the former Prange Greenhouse at 2510 West Good Hope Road to 179 market-rate units, a 149-unit apartment building and 30 townhomes, at a cost of $37.5 million, and was seeking tax increment financing for pesticide and fertilizer cleanup the state DNR requires. I could not confirm its 2026 status, so treat it as a proposal.

The biggest rule change of 2026 is short-term rentals. WISN reported on June 8, 2026 that the Common Council banned short-term rental bookings shorter than seven days, capped any property's short-term rental use at six months a year, and required a 24/7 local manager, liability insurance and a health department license. City officials had identified 17 short-term rentals, 13 of them unlicensed. If you were planning to buy a Glendale house to run as a weekend rental, that plan no longer works.

Two smaller zoning points matter to buyers. The city's zoning page says accessory dwelling units are currently not allowed, even though the 2020 comprehensive plan discussed accessory dwelling units as a way to add housing, and that up to four chickens are allowed with a permit. Campers and boats must be stored inside a garage or shed.

Glendale is the closest of the North Shore suburbs to most of Milwaukee's job centers, and it is right on I-43. These are free-flow estimates from OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM), computed in October 2026 from the center of the city. Real trips vary with traffic, construction and season.

From Vernon Hills, Illinois, Glendale is about 68 miles, roughly 1 hour 26 minutes. Downtown Chicago is about 94 miles and 2 hours, and O'Hare about 90 miles and 2 hours 10 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 7 miles and 14 minutes, and Milwaukee Mitchell Airport about 14 miles and 24 minutes. Madison is about 83 miles and 1 hour 45 minutes.

From Lake County, the usual route is I-94 north to the Marquette Interchange and then I-43 north, which runs through the middle of the city with interchanges at Silver Spring Drive, Good Hope Road and Bender Road. Port Washington Road, Green Bay Avenue and Silver Spring Drive are the main local roads.

The rail link to Chicago is Amtrak's Hiawatha, which runs between Milwaukee and Chicago Union Station. The Milwaukee Intermodal Station is about 7 miles and 14 minutes from Glendale on the same routing. The nearest Metra terminal, at Kenosha, is about 45 miles and 1 hour 3 minutes away, so for most Chicago trips the Hiawatha is the better train.

Glendale's open space is mostly Milwaukee County parkland along the river. The city's Moving to Glendale page names Kletzsch, Lincoln and Brown Deer parks as the three large county parks within minutes, linked by the Oak Leaf Trail. Kletzsch Park holds the falls and the old gristmill site the city history describes. Brown Deer Park and its golf course sit just north of Glendale in the City of Milwaukee; the Census geocoder places the clubhouse at 7835 North Green Bay Road in Milwaukee, not in Brown Deer or Glendale.

The city's own park is newer. The Richard E. Maslowski Community Park at 2200 West Bender Road, which Wikipedia dates to June 2017, has an amphitheater, a large playground, a community room, a war memorial, a ballfield and the Sprecher Brewing Outdoor Oasis, and it hosts the summer Live at the Oasis concert series. An Oak Leaf Trail head sits at the west end of Bender Road.

The city's Fourth of July celebration, with a parade and food truck festival, is held at Kletzsch Park. OpenStreetMap also maps a number of smaller parks and preserves inside or along the city's borders, including Craig Counsell Park, Winston Park, Wingate Park, the Indian Prairie Nature Preserve and the Sidney Woodlands Preserve.

Library service is shared. The North Shore Library serves Glendale, Bayside, Fox Point and River Hills from 711 Grace Street in Bayside.

Glendale is a full-service city on public water and sewer, with a few legacy quirks. Sewage treatment is provided by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, per the city's sanitary sewer page, and the MMSD line on the tax sheet ($1.29 per $1,000 in 2025) is how you pay for it. Water comes through the city's own utility and the North Shore Water Commission. The private wells that predate the utility are the item to check on an older house, as covered above.

Fire and emergency service is regional. The North Shore Fire Department is shared by Glendale, Bayside, Brown Deer, Fox Point, River Hills, Shorewood and Whitefish Bay, with each community holding one board seat, and its Station 2 and headquarters are at 5901 North Milwaukee River Parkway in Glendale. Health service is the shared North Shore Health Department, and municipal court is the shared North Shore Municipal Court. Glendale keeps its own police department.

Floodplain questions go to the city's floodplain administrator, and zoning, fences, sheds and pools go through the community development department. The fence rules are worth knowing before you close: the zoning page allows 6 feet in side and rear yards, only 3 feet and decorative or split-rail styles in front yards, and charges $105 for a residential permit.

The Glendale Police Department provides police service in the city, and fire and emergency medical service come from the shared North Shore Fire Department. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. Anyone who wants the data can contact the City of Glendale police department directly or look up its reported figures on the FBI Crime Data Explorer.