Grafton, WI

Grafton is a river town first. Wikipedia's village entry records that the territorial legislature created the Town of Grafton in 1846 and that the Village of Grafton incorporated from part of the town on March 30, 1896. The early economy ran on the Milwaukee River. The Grafton Flour Mill opened in 1846, a worsted wool mill followed in 1880 and employed about 100 people at its peak, and the river carried three dams for mechanical power at one time.

Stone was the second industry. The Milwaukee Falls Lime Company incorporated in 1890, built five wood-burning kilns between 1890 and 1893 on the river's west bank, and closed the quarry in 1926. The village acquired the site in the 1960s, and it is now Lime Kiln Park, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012.

Downtown, Paramount Plaza has a walk of black granite piano keys, each 2 feet wide and 7 feet long, begun in 2006.

The modern village is a product of the interstate. Wikipedia counts 1,489 people in 1950 and 8,381 in 1980, a fivefold increase, as the village annexed farmland from the town for subdivisions and I-43 opened in the mid-1960s. The 2020 census counted 12,094 people. The Department of Revenue's 2025 estimate is 13,124, an increase of about 8.5% in five years, which matches what I see in the building permits and apartment projects described in the development section.

The village is compact. The Census 2024 gazetteer puts it at 5.33 square miles of land and 0.059 square miles of water. The City of Cedarburg and the Town of Cedarburg border it on the west, and the Town of Grafton wraps around the north, east and south. I-43 runs along the east side with exits 92 (Highway 60) and 93, and Highway 60 runs east-west through downtown as Washington Street and Wisconsin Avenue.

The key fact for a buyer is that the "Grafton, WI 53024" mailing address covers far more than the village. On October 5, 2026, I ran a sample of listings from a public "Grafton, WI" search page through the Census geocoder. Houses on 12th Avenue, Cottonwood Lane, Candleberry Lane and North Green Bay Road came back in the village. Houses on Lake Shore Road, Lakefield Road, Ulao Parkway, Aspen Court and Edgewood Drive came back in the Town of Grafton. A house on Trillium Trail came back in the Town of Cedarburg, a condominium on New Port Vista Drive in the City of Port Washington, and a house on Acacia Drive in the Village of Saukville.

Each of those is a different municipality with its own tax rate, its own zoning and, outside the village, often a private well and septic system instead of village sewer and water.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the buyers I talk to assume the town in the address is the town on the tax bill. In the Grafton area that is right only part of the time, so the tax bill and the municipality line on it are the first things I'd check on any listing.

Downtown Milwaukee is about 32 minutes away, I-43 is minutes from anywhere in the village, and Lake Michigan and Lion's Den Gorge are a short drive east.

The trade-offs are concrete. The village tops out in the $800,000s; $2 million property in this area is on the Town of Grafton's lake bluffs or in Mequon. Vernon Hills is more than 100 minutes away in free-flow traffic, past the 90-minute line. The millpond above the Bridge Street dam is down until the repair is done. The I-43 side is growing quickly, with Woodman's and more apartments coming. And the 2025 revaluation means a 2024 tax bill is not a guide to a 2026 one.

The address can mislead you, too. "Grafton 53024" covers the town, parts of Cedarburg, Port Washington and Saukville, each with different taxes and, outside the village, often a well and septic system. I'd pull the tax bill and confirm the municipality, school district and utilities for the exact parcel before falling for a property.

I group the village into five areas, and the school district line runs through them, so I note it where it matters.

The first is downtown and the older grid around it: Wisconsin Avenue, Bridge Street and the numbered avenues on both sides of the Milwaukee River. This is where the mill buildings, Paramount Plaza, the village's oldest houses and most of its walkable streets are. Lots are smaller, and houses date from before 1940 through the 1960s.

The second is the river itself. Homes on the Milwaukee River and the millpond above the Bridge Street dam, such as the streets near 17th Avenue, Sunset Court and Riverview Court, trade on water views. On October 5, 2026 a 1953 three-bedroom house on 0.65 acres with river frontage on 12th Avenue was listed at $574,900. The river section covers the dam, which matters for every one of these houses.

The third is the newer subdivisions on the north and west edges. Listing pages on October 5, 2026 showed new construction in Hawks Ridge, which its listing places in the village near Keup Road and Highway 60, and in Shady Hollow on Candleberry Lane, with four-bedroom houses of about 2,600 to 3,000 square feet asking roughly $730,000 to $785,000. Phase 2 lots in Hawks Ridge, on Mallard Drive and Bluebill Lane, were listed at about $160,000 to $174,000 for a quarter to a little under half an acre with village sewer and water.

The fourth is the Cedarburg School District side on the west. Stonewall Farms, on Kohlwey Drive, is a newer subdivision whose listings advertise the Cedarburg district; a 2023 five-bedroom house there was listed at $849,900. Cottonwood Lane, which geocoded to the village and the Cedarburg district, had the village's highest-priced active house on that date, a four-bedroom of 3,450 square feet at $849,000.

The fifth is the I-43 side around Highway 60 and Port Washington Road: the big-box retail district, Aurora Medical Center Grafton, condominium communities such as those on Verona Circle and Pine Ridge Court, and most of the new apartment buildings. Two-bedroom condominiums there were listed from about $265,000 to $722,000 on October 5, 2026, the top end being new ranch units.

Grafton has a more varied housing stock than most Ozaukee County villages. The 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 5,769 housing units (plus or minus 286). Only 2,691, about 47%, are single-family detached. Another 760 are single-family attached, and the rest are spread across two-unit buildings up to large complexes, including 589 units in buildings of 50 or more. Of the 5,575 occupied homes, 3,415, about 61%, are owner-occupied.

The age mix tilts newer than the county. The village's median home was built in 1986, against 1978 for Ozaukee County as a whole. There are 345 homes from before 1940, mostly in the downtown grid, about 832 from the 1970s, 905 from the 1990s, 881 from the 2000s and 711 from the 2010s. The newest subdivisions and apartments from 2020 onward are only starting to show up in the survey.

The ACS puts the median value of an owner-occupied home at $328,800, plus or minus $13,054. Its value table shows 1,091 owner homes valued at $300,000 to $399,999, 463 at $400,000 to $499,999, 406 at $500,000 to $749,999 and only 46 at $750,000 to $999,999. Because the survey asks owners to estimate value and averages five years, it trails the current market. The market section uses Zillow and Redfin for today's prices.

Each type has its own inspection list. A pre-1940 house near the river can have a fieldstone or block foundation, older wiring and a floodplain question. A 1970s ranch is usually due for windows, a roof and mechanicals. A new build needs a close read of the builder's warranty and the subdivision's recorded rules. The expectation I most often reset with Illinois buyers is condominium fees: in a newer Grafton ranch condominium the association typically covers lawn care and snow removal, and the budget behind that is worth reading.

The village's waterfront is the Milwaukee River, and its most valuable stretch is the millpond held back by the Bridge Street dam downtown. That dam is the single biggest variable for river property in Grafton right now.

Ozaukee Press reported on July 15, 2026 that the dam's hydraulic cylinder failed on the night of May 1, 2026, sending a surge downstream and largely draining the millpond, which left mudflats along the shore. A consultant traced the failure to the cylinder and estimated a repair at $154,000 with a refurbished part or $180,000 with a new one. In June the Village Board postponed the decision for 60 days to study repair versus removal, noting that voters had chosen to keep the dam in a 2010 referendum.

The board chose repair. TMJ4 reported on September 30, 2026 that the village approved a $282,000 contract to replace the cylinder, with Lunda Construction expected to do about 60 days of work starting in late October or early November 2026. Until that work is done and the pond refills, a riverfront house above the dam will not show its normal water view.

For a buyer, I'd treat the dam as three questions. First, what the view and water level looked like before May 2026, which old listing photos usually show. Second, whether the repair finished on schedule and the pond refilled. Third, whether the lender or appraiser treats the frontage as it normally would; one homeowner told Ozaukee Press in July that a bank asked for a new assessment while the pond was down.

Below the dam and in the village's northern and southern stretches, the river is free-flowing, and the village's parks have canoe launches. Riverfront lots anywhere in the village should be checked against the FEMA floodplain map and the village's shoreland-wetland zoning, covered in the shoreland section.

I'll be direct about this because it is the question Illinois buyers ask first: the Village of Grafton is not a $2 million market. On October 5, 2026, the public "Grafton, WI" search page showed 123 listings under the Grafton name. The highest-priced houses that geocoded inside the village were a 2023 five-bedroom of 3,378 square feet in Stonewall Farms at $849,900 and a four-bedroom of 3,450 square feet on Cottonwood Lane at $849,000.

The higher-priced "Grafton" listings on that page were outside the village. A 2003 six-bedroom house of 5,500 square feet on Aspen Court at $1,195,000, a 1916 farmhouse on 31.9 acres on Ulao Parkway South at $999,900, and a pending 49-acre parcel on East Sauk Road at $1,599,000 are all in the Town of Grafton. A five-bedroom house on Trillium Trail at $1,050,000 is in the Town of Cedarburg.

Zillow's top-tier index, which tracks the upper third of homes, was $688,162 for ZIP 53024 in August 2026, up 5.9% in a year. The ACS counts 16 owner homes in the village valued at $1 million to $1.5 million and none above that, with margins of error larger than the estimates. That is the honest ceiling: in the village, new and newer houses top out in the $800,000s.

The Grafton area's real high end is in the Town of Grafton along Lake Michigan, where bluff-top acreage near Lion's Den Gorge sold for $2,565,000 in 2024. The Town of Grafton guide covers that market. For larger houses at $2 million and up in Ozaukee County, buyers usually also look south in Mequon. The village's appeal is a different one: a walkable river downtown, village services and new construction for less than either.

Grafton sits in the middle of Ozaukee County's price range. Zillow's typical home value for Grafton was $460,062 in August 2026, up 6.0% from $433,954 a year earlier and about 10.4% over two years. Ozaukee County as a whole was $507,273. Among nearby places, Mequon was $659,897, Cedarburg $566,235, Port Washington $392,624 and Saukville $410,038. ZIP 53024, which also takes in much of the Town of Grafton, was $477,250.

It is an active market for its size. Redfin's monthly data counts 217 sales in Grafton in the 12 months through May 2026, against 214 the year before. Monthly medians in that stretch ran from $375,000 to $618,750. In May 2026 the median was $467,000 on 20 sales, with a median of 33 days on market and homes selling at about 102.6% of list price. Inventory was 43 homes, down from 71 a year earlier.

Two things stand out. Homes have sold above list in most recent months, between about 100% and 107% of asking, which tells you the middle of the market is tight. And the Redfin monthly median swings by $100,000 or more month to month because a few new-construction closings or a few condominiums can tilt a month of 10 to 20 sales.

Zillow and Redfin measure different things. Zillow estimates the value of every home; Redfin reports what closed in a month. In a village where new construction at $700,000-plus sells alongside 1950s ranches and two-bedroom condominiums, I read the trend from Zillow and the competition from Redfin's sale-to-list and days on market. If you're running numbers on a purchase, my guide to how much house you can afford in 2026 is a good place to start.

Wisconsin property tax vocabulary is different from Illinois, so start with the translation. The local assessor sets an assessed value. The Department of Revenue sets a full, or equalized, value for the whole village. The ratio between them is the assessment level, and the tax rate, quoted in dollars per $1,000, applies to the assessed value.

Grafton revalued in 2025, and that changes how old and new numbers compare. The village's 2025 rate sheet shows the assessment ratio rising from 0.7654 in 2024 to 0.9642 in 2025. Assessed values went up toward market value, so the mill rate came down: in the Grafton School District the net rate fell from $17.14 to $12.33 per $1,000, a drop of 28%. The equalized rate, which compares tax to market value, fell only from $13.12 to $11.78. A buyer comparing a 2024 tax bill to a 2025 rate sheet without knowing that will get the wrong answer.

The Ozaukee County Treasurer's 2025 rate table gives the two village rates. In the Grafton School District, the gross rate is $13.52 per $1,000 of assessed value and the net rate after the state school levy credit is $12.33, with a lottery credit of $168.55 and a first dollar credit of $56.18. In the Cedarburg School District part of the village, the gross rate is $12.59 and the net rate $11.40, with credits of $168.75 and $56.25. The DOR's 2025 effective rate for the whole village is 1.178% of full value.

A worked example. On a $460,000 house, Zillow's typical value, assessed at the 0.9642 ratio, the assessed value would be about $443,600. In the Grafton School District, the 2025 bill would be about $5,470 after the school levy credit, or about $5,246 after the lottery and first dollar credits for a primary residence, roughly 1.14% of price. The same house in the Cedarburg district would be about $4,831 after credits, about 1.05%. On an $849,900 new build in the Grafton district, it would be about $9,881. The village's own estimate is that a home assessed at $419,000 pays $2,949 of its bill for village services, and the village's tax page says the village keeps about 35% of the bill, the school districts 50%, the county 9% and the technical college 6%.

The village has four tax incremental districts. The DOR report puts full value at $2,509,357,300 with them and $2,288,809,000 without, so about 8.8% of village value sits in TIF districts, mostly the commercial growth near I-43. The DOR's lottery credit report confirms that credit is for a primary residence only. Wisconsin's real estate transfer fee is $0.30 per $100 of value, normally paid by the seller. Bills are due in full by January 31 or in three installments through May 31. This is general information, not tax advice.

River property in the village falls under village rules, not the county's. Under Wis. Stat. 61.351, every village must zone all unfilled wetlands of 5 acres or more that sit in shorelands, and the village administers its own shoreland-wetland zoning. Under Wis. Stat. 61.353, any shoreland the village annexed after May 7, 1982 from a town under county shoreland zoning must carry a village ordinance with a shoreland setback of at least 50 feet from the ordinary high-water mark. Because so much of Grafton was annexed from the Town of Grafton after 1982, that second rule reaches more parcels than buyers expect.

Floodplain is the other check. The Milwaukee River runs the length of the village, and downtown and riverfront parcels should be checked against the FEMA flood map before an offer, since flood insurance can be a lender requirement. The Port Washington-Saukville School District's 2026 decision to sell its old Saukville school, a few miles upriver, noted that the site is in a floodplain and includes wetlands, Ozaukee Press reported on March 25, 2026. River towns along this stretch share that constraint.

Annexation is the third rule to understand, because it decides which side of the line a parcel is on. The village has grown for decades by annexing land from the Town of Grafton, and it is still doing so; the Woodman's site described in the development section is being annexed from the town. A parcel annexed into the village usually gains access to village sewer and water and takes on the village tax rate and zoning. If a property sits on the edge of the village, I'd ask whether any annexation petition or boundary agreement affects it.

The village provides public sewer and water, which is one of the main differences between the village and the town around it. The Town of Grafton's own comprehensive plan says the village's sanitary sewer service area covers the whole village and portions of the town, while most town land uses mound systems and private wells.

Fire and ambulance service come from the Ozaukee Central Fire Department. The Village of Saukville's page on the department says it was established January 1, 2025 as a consolidated, jointly funded department for the Villages of Grafton and Saukville and the Towns of Grafton and Saukville, providing paramedic-level service from two stations. The headquarters station is at 1431 13th Avenue in Grafton. Ozaukee Press reported on September 23, 2026 that the interim chief, named in March 2026, was the only applicant for the permanent job.

The village's budget summary lists 20 developed parks and facilities, trash collection with seasonal brush and curbside leaf pickup, and the village's public library. Village Hall is at 860 Badger Circle. Aurora Medical Center Grafton, which Wikipedia says opened in 2010, is the village's largest employer and sits in the eastern commercial district near I-43.

Most of the village is in the Grafton School District, and a western strip is in the Cedarburg School District. The DOR's school apportionment puts $2.03 billion of village value in the Grafton district and $256 million in Cedarburg. Both are K-12 districts, so there is no separate union high school here, unlike the lake districts of Walworth and Kenosha counties.

The Grafton district has four schools.

Assignment follows the parcel. The district line also sets the tax rate, about $0.93 per $1,000 lower in the Cedarburg part in 2025, so confirm both with the district and the tax bill before counting on either.

Grafton is a Milwaukee suburb, and the drive times say so. I ran free-flow routes on the OSRM routing engine, which uses OpenStreetMap roads and no traffic, from downtown Grafton on October 5, 2026. Treat these as best-case estimates.

From downtown Grafton, I-43 exit 92 is about 1.5 miles and 4 minutes away. Downtown Milwaukee is about 22 miles and 32 minutes, Milwaukee's airport about 29 miles and 42 minutes, Cedarburg about 3 miles and 7 minutes, and Port Washington about 7 miles and 11 minutes.

Illinois is a longer trip. Vernon Hills is about 83 road miles and 103 minutes, Lake Forest about 79 miles and 98 minutes, downtown Chicago about 110 miles and 138 minutes, and O'Hare about 105 miles, which the router put at 147 minutes. Rush hour on I-43 through Milwaukee and on I-94 adds real time to all of those.

I say this plainly to Illinois buyers: Grafton is past the 90-minute line from Lake County, Illinois.

Grafton has no passenger rail station. The freight line through the village and the Union Pacific line along its eastern edge carry no passenger trains, according to Wikipedia.

The local option is the Route 143 Ozaukee County Express, a weekday peak-hour bus to Milwaukee run by Ozaukee County and the Milwaukee County Transit System. Wikipedia lists two Grafton park-and-ride stops off I-43 exit 92, at the Grafton Commons shopping center and the Target lot. Ozaukee County's Shared Ride Taxi covers trips the bus does not.

For Chicago, the train is Amtrak's Hiawatha from Milwaukee. In Amtrak's schedule data for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, I counted six Hiawatha departures from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to Chicago Union Station, at 99 minutes each except the first, at 112. The Milwaukee Airport station has the same trains at 89 to 101 minutes. Downtown Grafton is about 32 minutes from the Intermodal Station in free-flow traffic, and about 42 minutes from Milwaukee's airport, where the airport station is. Metra is not a practical option; the nearest Metra terminal, Kenosha, is about 81 minutes away by car.

Grafton's parks follow the river. Wikipedia lists Lime Kiln Park at 28 acres on the west bank, with the preserved kilns, 40-foot dolomite outcrops, river access for canoes and kayaks and a disc golf course, and Centennial Park at 27 acres. The village's budget summary counts 20 developed parks and facilities, including pavilions, walking and biking trails, tennis courts, a swimming pool and athletic fields, and Wikipedia adds a municipal golf course.

The Ozaukee Interurban Trail runs through the village on the old interurban rail line. It connects Grafton south to Cedarburg, Mequon and the Milwaukee County line, where it meets the Oak Leaf Trail, and north to Port Washington and Sheboygan County, about 40 miles in all.

Downtown, Paramount Plaza has its granite piano-key walk, and the riverfront streets around Bridge Street hold the village's restaurants and shops.

Lake Michigan is close even though the village does not touch it. Lion's Den Gorge Nature Preserve, Ozaukee County's most visited park, with 90- to 100-foot bluffs and stairs down to the beach, is in the Town of Grafton about 10 to 15 minutes east. The Town of Grafton guide covers it in detail.

Grafton's commercial growth is concentrated on Port Washington Road near I-43. The News Graphic reported on September 24, 2026 that the Grafton Plan Commission recommended approval of a Woodman's Food Market on a 26-acre property on Port Washington Road south of Arrowhead Road, including annexation of the land from the Town of Grafton into the village. The store would be 245,000 square feet, larger than the roughly 150,000-square-foot Costco to its south and the roughly 200,000-square-foot Meijer at Port Washington Road and Hunter's Lane, and would add a convenience store with fuel, a quick lube and a car wash. The plan would split the site into a 19.98-acre development lot and a 5.86-acre stormwater lot.

The same report said the village has widened Port Washington Road to four lanes north and south of Highway 60 as development arrived, and is considering extending the widening north to Arrowhead Road. The Milwaukee Business Journal's headline on October 5, 2026 said the village was set to vote on the rezoning and annexation. Buyers near Port Washington Road and Arrowhead Road should expect more traffic.

Housing is growing too. Ozaukee Press reported on April 1, 2026 that every candidate in that spring's Village Board race named managing growth as the village's top issue, with recent construction weighted toward apartments and new single-family subdivisions on the edges. The same paper reported in March 2026 that a Grafton company had bought a 35,000-square-foot former aluminum foundry in the village in 2024 to convert into commercial condominiums.

For a buyer, the practical reading is that the village keeps expanding outward through annexation, mostly on the north, west and I-43 edges, while downtown changes slowly. A field next to a subdivision on the edge of Grafton is often a future phase or a future annexation, and the village's comprehensive plan and any pending annexation are worth reading before buying beside one.

The Grafton Police Department provides police service in the village; the village's budget summary lists 23 sworn officers and six support staff. Fire and ambulance service come from the Ozaukee Central Fire Department. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. Anyone who wants the data can ask the police department or look up its reported figures on the FBI Crime Data Explorer.