Lisbon, WI

Lisbon is older than Wisconsin. The Wikipedia entry for the village says Thomas S. Redford claimed 160 acres in 1836, and that the territorial legislature created the Town of Lisbon in 1838, ten years before statehood. Its first boundaries took in what became Pewaukee, Brookfield and Menomonee Falls, which became their own towns in 1839. The town board first met in 1842 in what became the Lisbon Plank Schoolhouse. The state's 2022 review of Lisbon's village petition says a local quarry supplied the stone for that school in 1846.

For most of its history Lisbon was farms, quarries and small hamlets. Then its center became somebody else. The Incorporation Review Board's 2022 determination explains that the Village of Sussex incorporated in 1924 from territory roughly in the middle of the town, the Village of Merton incorporated in 1922 on its west side, and both grew for decades by annexing town land. Lisbon's six-mile-square shape became jagged, with town islands and peninsulas.

That is why it took Lisbon three tries to become a village. The determination says the town petitioned in 1979 and 2011 and failed both times, largely on compactness. After 2011 Lisbon signed boundary agreements with Merton in 2020 and with Sussex in 2022. The Sussex agreement moved 66 parcels and 550 acres into Sussex and moved road segments and a quarry into Lisbon, which cleaned up most of the irregular edges.

The third petition worked. The village's incorporation page records the timeline: notice of intent on February 11, 2022, a public hearing before the state board on July 20, 2022, a positive determination on November 9, 2022, a referendum on January 10, 2023, and a Certificate of Incorporation issued February 13, 2023. The first Village Board was elected April 4, 2023. The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee describes the January 2023 vote as overwhelming.

Lisbon is in north-central Waukesha County, about 25 miles northwest of Milwaukee. The 2024 Census Gazetteer measures the village at 26.33 square miles of land and 0.33 square miles of water. The state's incorporation review lists its neighbors: Richfield to the north, Germantown to the northeast, Lannon and Menomonee Falls to the east, Brookfield to the southeast, the City and Village of Pewaukee to the south, Hartland to the southwest, Merton to the west, and Sussex in the middle.

It is large and spread out. The same review counted 10,731 residents at about 402 people per square mile, which it attributes to Lisbon's long-standing large-lot zoning, and 101 miles of village roads that mostly serve individual subdivisions rather than connecting them. It also described homes "set into the natural environment" and said state staff on a site visit often could not see houses that the plat maps showed behind the trees. Highways 164 and 74 and County Highways K, VV, Q, J and F carry the through traffic.

The housing is almost all owner-occupied single-family. The 2020-2024 Census ACS counts 4,056 housing units. Of 3,961 occupied homes, 3,731, about 94%, are owner-occupied, and about 90% of all units are single-family detached houses. The median home was built in 1983, and the largest single build decade is the 1970s, with 1,166 homes.

The state's January 2025 estimate puts the population at 11,219. The ZIP code most Lisbon addresses use, 53089, is shared with Sussex, so always confirm the municipality on the county parcel record.

Lisbon does not have a downtown, and its subdivisions are scattered between woods, wetlands and quarries. The most useful way I know to split it for a buyer is by school district, because that also decides the tax rate. The DOR's 2025 apportionment puts about $1.10 billion of Lisbon's value in the Hamilton School District, about $639 million in the Merton Community district and about $554 million in the Richmond district, with Merton and Richmond both feeding Arrowhead Union High School.

The Hamilton area is the east and central part of the village around Sussex. The Census geocoder places Village Hall, Hamilton High School and Songbird Hills Golf Club in the Hamilton district. This is where the Lisbon-Sussex boundary is closest and where municipal sewer and water extensions are most likely.

The Merton and Arrowhead area is the northwest. Lisbon Community Park, off Lake Five Road and Oakwood Road, and Lisbon Oaks Park both geocode to the Merton Community district. This is the part of Lisbon closest to the Village of Merton and to Lake Keesus, which sits just over the line in the Town of Merton.

The Richmond and Arrowhead area is the southwest, toward Hartland and Pewaukee. Richmond Elementary and Ironwood Golf Course both geocode here, and it has the shortest drives to I-94: from the Ironwood area, OpenStreetMap routing puts the Village of Pewaukee about 8 minutes away and Hartland about 10.

The quarry belt runs through the middle along County F, County K, Townline Road and Highway 164. The village's quarry page lists the operators and locations, covered in its own section below. Before you buy anywhere near it, find out how close the nearest active pit is.

I am not naming individual subdivisions as better or worse.

Lisbon's large lots are a policy, not an accident. The state's incorporation determination says Lisbon has regulated land use since about 1960 and has consistently pushed development onto larger lots, largely to protect groundwater. Most homes draw from a shallow aquifer under the glacial sand and gravel, recharged almost entirely by rain that soaks in nearby, so the lot itself does part of the work of refilling the well.

The zoning reflects that. The same document says the code includes A10, A5 and A3 categories with 10-acre, 5-acre and 3-acre minimum lot sizes, and that owners on those lots tend to run them as residential farmettes rather than commercial farms. Only one farm was still operating in 2022, and no zoning district is reserved for agriculture alone. Lisbon also adopted a Groundwater Protection Ordinance, and a 2010 groundwater study it commissioned concluded the large-lot approach let water percolate back into the aquifer sustainably.

Lisbon's own 2021 land use calculations show what the map looks like in acres. Of about 17,311 acres, about 3,842 are low-density residential that is developed or in process, about 553 are suburban density I and about 255 are suburban density II, which the plan assumes at about 2.2 and 3.95 acres per home. Quarries take about 1,563 acres, and about 4,077 acres, nearly a quarter of the village, are environmental corridors, wetlands, floodplain and water.

In plain terms for a buyer: a 3-acre-plus lot here is normal, not rare, and dividing one is hard. If you are buying acreage with a plan to split off a lot later, talk to the village planner before you price that in. The land division and development ordinance and the zoning code govern it, and a parcel near wetlands or a corridor will have less buildable ground than its acreage suggests.

Zillow's home value index, which estimates the value of a typical home whether it sold or not, puts Lisbon at $588,992 for August 2026, up about 5.3% from $559,589 in August 2025. Zillow's top-tier index, which tracks the upper third of homes, was $803,844, up about 6.3% in a year.

Neighbors on the same index for August 2026: Menomonee Falls $439,642, Sussex $518,858, Lannon $519,926, Lisbon $588,992 and Hartland $672,143. Lisbon prices above its eastern neighbors because of lot size, and below Hartland and the lake villages to the west.

The 2020-2024 ACS tells a slightly different story. Its median value of owner-occupied homes is $414,500, plus or minus about $21,000, which is below Sussex's ACS median. The gap comes mostly from method: the ACS counts every housing type and uses owners' own estimates from a five-year window. The value bands are more useful: 1,022 owner homes valued at $300,000 to $399,999, 867 at $400,000 to $499,999, 680 at $500,000 to $749,999 and 367 at $750,000 to $999,999.

Here is the honest luxury picture. Lisbon is an acreage market, not a $2 million market. The ACS counts 77 owner-occupied homes, about 2%, valued at $1 million or more, and none of Lisbon is lakefront. The top of the market is wooded estate lots of several acres, often with outbuildings, and in my reading of the public data that tier is mostly a high six-figure to low seven-figure market. I could not find a public, dated 2026 sale above $1.5 million in Lisbon to cite, so I won't name a ceiling.

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 property, the comparable sales on similar acreage are the numbers that matter.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the tax bill is the first thing people compare, and Lisbon's takes two extra steps to read. First, one village has three tax rates, one per school district. Second, Lisbon's assessments were well below market in 2025 and were reset in 2026.

The Waukesha County 2025 tax rate sheet, dated December 11, 2025, lists Lisbon's assessment ratio at 72.46%, meaning assessed values averaged about 72% of market value. On the Hamilton side, the gross rate is $14.72 per $1,000 of assessed value: schools $9.22, the village $3.13, the county $2.03 and the technical college $0.34. After the state school levy credit of $1.58, the net rate is $13.14 assessed, which the county converts to $9.52 per $1,000 of market value. The Richmond and Arrowhead side nets $11.22 assessed, or $8.13 per $1,000 of market value, and the Merton and Arrowhead side nets $11.00 assessed, or $7.97. The village's mill rate page shows the same three 2025 rates.

Here is a worked example on a $600,000 home before credits: about $5,712 a year on the Hamilton side, $4,878 on the Richmond side and $4,782 on the Merton side. A $1,000,000 home would carry about $9,520, $8,130 or $7,970. The county sheet lists maximum lottery and gaming credits of $180.41, $142.94 and $138.62 for those three districts, for a primary residence only, and first dollar credits of $60.14, $47.64 and $46.20. For comparison, Ownwell's Vernon Hills data shows a 2.75% median effective rate, or about $16,500 on $600,000.

Now the revaluation. The village assessor page says 2026 is a revaluation year for the whole village, with an average residential assessment increase of 47.76% and a commercial increase of 56.93%, because the state requires a revaluation once the ratio drops below 90%. The village says the rate should fall by a similar proportion, so the 2026 bill should depend on how your house moved relative to the average. For a buyer, that means the seller's 2025 bill is a weak guide. Ask for the 2026 assessed value and compare it to the purchase price.

When you sell, Wisconsin charges a real estate transfer fee of $0.30 per $100 of value, or $1,800 on a $600,000 sale.

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

The village's school district page says Lisbon is served by four districts: Hamilton, Richmond, Merton and Arrowhead. Hamilton is a 4K-12 district. Richmond and Merton are elementary districts that run through eighth grade, and their graduates go to Arrowhead Union High School in Hartland. The state's 2022 review counted four public schools inside the village: Richmond School, Hamilton High School, Templeton Middle School and Silver Spring Intermediate.

The district lines matter more here than in most places, because they also set the tax rate, and the village's own ward and school district page notes that a Richmond district map is not posted and to call Village Hall. Confirm the district for each address with the village and the district before you write an offer.

Plan on a private well and septic system for most Lisbon houses. The state's incorporation determination says most residents rely on private wells and onsite wastewater systems. It also describes a former sanitary district, now part of the village, that provides sewer service to some areas, including Richmond School, Hamilton High School, Templeton Middle School and the village's first tax increment district, using Sussex's plant and capacity. The 2022 boundary agreement with Sussex expanded the areas that can get sewer and water.

The newest change is a water main for a quarry-affected area. On October 1, 2026, the Waukesha Freeman reported that Lisbon, with Sussex and Lannon Stone Products, plans to extend municipal water south from County VV at Townline Road to Weyer Road and west from Townline Road to the Lisbon Heights subdivision. Lannon Stone's quarry fund would pay for the main, laterals, meters and hookups, residents would pay water bills, and no sewer is included. Design and access agreements run through spring 2027, with construction expected from spring to late 2027. The administrator said bedrock in that area can let septic effluent travel faster, and that a property there had well contamination problems.

What that means for a buyer: on any Lisbon house, get the well tested for bacteria and nitrates, ask the well's age and depth, and get the septic inspected and its capacity checked against the bedrooms you plan to use. Near the quarries, ask whether the property is covered by a quarry operator's well guarantee, which the same article describes as one reason the water project exists.

Lisbon joined FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program, so federal flood insurance is now available. With about a quarter of the village in wetlands, floodplain and corridors, check the FEMA map on any parcel near the Bark River or a wetland edge.

Quarrying has been part of Lisbon since settlement, and it is still a big part of the village. The incorporation determination says four limestone quarries and three sand and gravel pits operate, covering about 1,845 acres, more than 11% of the land, and that their stone went into projects like I-94 and the Milwaukee airport expansion. It counted 56 of Lisbon's 107 businesses as quarries or quarry-support firms.

The village's quarry page lists the sites. Lannon Stone Products runs four: a South Quarry west of County F and south of County K, with an asphalt plant; a West or main quarry west of County F and north of County K that conducts occasional high-energy blasts; the Lisbon Pit along Townline Road with a concrete plant; and the Sussex Quarry east of County F on the north side of County K. Genesee Aggregate runs a sand and gravel pit along Highway 164, holds a dormant pit on Plainview Road and a third site. Halquist Stone runs the Ideal Quarry on Townline Road. Holcim runs the Colgate Aggregates site on Hillside Road, and Payne and Dolan runs K&N Aggregates on Highway 164 with an asphalt plant.

For a buyer, quarries mean truck traffic on County F, County K, Townline Road and Highway 164, periodic blasting and, for some homes, well questions. They also pay for things: the state review says Lannon Stone agreed to put more than $13 million toward Sussex's water system, and its quarry fund is paying for the 2027 water main. The village posts blasting information and each site's reclamation plan.

I treat distance to the nearest active pit as one of the first things to check on a Lisbon address, the way I would check a rail line or a flight path in Lake County.

Lisbon is not a lake market, and a few online sources blur that. The Census Gazetteer counts about 0.33 square miles of water inside the village, mostly ponds, wetland and stream. There is no named recreational lake inside the boundary that I could confirm.

Lake Five is the common confusion. The Wikipedia entry says the unincorporated community of Lake Five is partly in the village, and Lisbon Community Park sits off Lake Five Road. But the Census geocoder places the lake itself, using its OpenStreetMap location, in the Village of Richfield in Washington County, north of the Lisbon line. Lake Keesus, the nearest larger lake, geocodes to the Town of Merton just west of Lisbon.

The water Lisbon does have is the Bark River, which runs through the north and west of the village. The state's review lists piers for river access at the 123-acre Lisbon Community Park. A proposed 22-home subdivision, Sunny Brooke Meadows, on 64.4 acres at County Highway Q, sits along the Bark River with about 32.4 acres of wetlands, per the Waukesha Freeman's September 2026 report.

On the Kettle Moraine: the Waukesha County plan chapter Lisbon posts describes the moraine running northeast to southwest through the western half of the county, with the county's sand, gravel and stone tied to that glacial geology. Lisbon's rolling hills and gravel pits belong to that landscape, but the nearest state forest land, the Loew Lake Unit, geocodes to the Town of Erin in Washington County, north of the village. For lakefront, buyers look west to the Town of Merton, Hartland and the Pewaukee Lake shore at Pewaukee.

For a village with no lake, Lisbon has a lot of outdoor space. The state's 2022 review lists seven village parks totaling about 207 acres. The largest is Lisbon Community Park at 123 acres, with playgrounds, three shelters, ballfields, hiking and cross-country ski trails, sledding hills, an ice rink and Bark River piers. Lisbon Oaks, Stoney Halquist, Fred Keller Field, Plainview Parkway and Jane Stadler Memorial Park at Village Hall round it out. Waukesha County's Ryan/McKerrow Park, an undeveloped natural area for hiking and riding, has about 119 acres inside Lisbon.

The parks are getting an upgrade. The village's park improvement page describes new playground equipment, two new pavilions, a disc golf course, new pickleball and tennis courts and more parking, partly funded by donations. The Bugline Trail page says the 16-mile paved trail, built in 1983 on an old railroad line, runs from Menomonee Falls to the Village of Merton with an access point and parking at Lisbon Community Park. Snowmobile access is allowed at designated parks.

Private recreation fills in the rest. The review counted three golf courses, a driving range, a downhill ski club, a rod and gun club, an archery club and riding stables on about 721 acres. Ironwood and Songbird Hills are two of the golf courses. Ausblick, the private ski club at W260-N6395 Mary Hill Road, is expanding: in September 2026 the Waukesha Freeman reported plans to raise the hill 20 feet, add a quad chairlift targeted for 2030 and add up to 99 parking spaces, with neighbors raising traffic, noise and lighting concerns.

The village's events page listed the Community Festival on June 20, 2026 at Lisbon Community Park.

These are free-flow estimates from OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM), computed in October 2026 from Lisbon Village Hall in the northeast part of the village. Lisbon is big enough that the southwest corner runs several minutes faster to I-94, so I give both where it matters.

From Village Hall, Vernon Hills, Illinois is about 83 miles and roughly 1 hour 50 minutes. From the southwest corner near Ironwood Golf Course, it is about 1 hour 45 minutes. Downtown Chicago is about 109 miles and roughly 2 hours 15 to 2 hours 25 minutes, and O'Hare about 106 miles and roughly 2 hours 30 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 26 miles, roughly 35 to 42 minutes, and Milwaukee Mitchell Airport about 31 miles, roughly 45 to 52 minutes. Madison is about 64 to 71 miles and roughly 1 hour 20 to 1 hour 35 minutes.

Locally, Menomonee Falls is about 18 minutes from Village Hall, and the Village of Pewaukee and Hartland are about 8 and 10 minutes from the southwest corner. From Lake County, the usual route is I-94 north to Milwaukee, then west on I-94 to County F or Highway 164 and north into the village.

There is no Metra option worth using; the Kenosha terminal is about 1 hour 20 minutes away by car. The rail link to Chicago is Amtrak's Hiawatha. Amtrak's October 2026 schedule data shows six weekday trains each way between Milwaukee and Chicago Union Station, about 1 hour 40 minutes end to end, with stops at Milwaukee Airport, Sturtevant and Glenview. The Milwaukee Intermodal Station is about 33 to 41 minutes from Lisbon, and the Glenview stop is the closest one to Lake County.

Lisbon chose a long time ago not to build its own retail center. The state's review says the town decided not to duplicate the shopping in Sussex, Brookfield, Menomonee Falls and Waukesha, and has no chain or big-box stores outside its new business park. Groceries, restaurants and errands mostly happen in Sussex, a few minutes from most of Lisbon, and in Menomonee Falls or Pewaukee.

The village contracts out its public safety. The village's police page says the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department provides 24-hour police protection through a Lisbon division. Fire and EMS changed in 2024: the Waukesha Freeman reported that the City of Pewaukee Fire Department took over fire and EMS on September 1, 2024 under a contract with a base cost of $2.15 million a year, operating out of Lisbon's two existing stations, and that the Lisbon Fire Department closed for good on October 31, 2024.

Other services are typical of a rural village. Lisbon contracts with a hauler for garbage and recycling, runs a compost site for residential yard waste and offers brush pickup, per its new resident guide. The Pauline Haass Public Library in Sussex is jointly funded by the two villages, according to the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee. The village holds its board and committee meetings at Village Hall and the Richard Jung Fire Station on Lisbon Road.

Storms are worth asking about on any recent purchase. On April 14, 2026, an EF2 tornado with maximum winds of 120 mph and a 3.2-mile path damaged homes and businesses in Lisbon and Sussex, according to the Waukesha Freeman. Ask for roof age and any 2026 storm claims.

Most of Lisbon's new building is commercial, along Highway 74. The Business Park East page says the park sits on the former Lied's Nursery site at Highway 74 and Richard Road, with water service approved through Sussex. Tenants listed include Wikoff Color, Polyak Trucking, a PepsiCo warehouse that opened with a ribbon cutting on January 31, 2024, a Kwik Trip, a Pizza Ranch that opened in summer 2024, Vermeer Wisconsin and a dance studio, with more industrial sites available.

Residential growth is slower and lower-density. The state's 2022 review counted about 2,459 acres of vacant developable land, about 14% of the village, and mentioned a planned "Town Center" with higher-density housing, commercial space, a new Village Hall and a park, plus a Highway 164 commercial area. I could not find a 2026 source confirming the Town Center's status, so treat it as a plan.

The newest residential concept is Sunny Brooke Meadows. Per the Waukesha Freeman, Kaerek Homes proposed 22 single-family homes on 64.4 acres at County Highway Q along the Bark River in September 2026, with about 32.4 acres of wetlands. That works out to roughly 2.9 acres of land per home, which is about what Lisbon's zoning favors. The Milwaukee Business Journal covered the same plan.

Other projects on the calendar: the quarry-funded water main in 2027, the park improvement project, and Ausblick's hill and chairlift expansion. If you are buying near Mary Hill Road, Highway 74 or County Q, look at what is pending before you commit.

Lisbon does not have its own police department. The Waukesha County Sheriff's Department provides 24-hour police service to the village under contract through a Lisbon division. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. Anyone who wants the data can contact the Sheriff's Department or use the FBI's Crime Data Explorer.

The 2025 tax rate of about $8 to $9.50 per $1,000 of market value is well below Sussex's and a fraction of Lake County's.

Most houses are on wells and septic, quarries shape the center of the village, the 2026 revaluation makes last year's tax bill a poor guide, and Vernon Hills is close to two hours away. Within the village, the school district you land in changes both your schools and your rate.