Mount Pleasant, WI

Mount Pleasant began as a town in 1842. Wikipedia, drawing on the village's own history page, says the Town of Mount Pleasant was organized that year, adopted its own zoning ordinance in 1972, and incorporated as a village on September 16, 2003, after a referendum. The 1972 zoning date matters to a buyer because it is why most of Mount Pleasant's subdivisions follow village rules rather than county ones.

The village grew as Racine grew. The census counted 19,340 people in 1980, 23,142 in 2000, 26,197 in 2010 and 27,732 in 2020, per the same Wikipedia table. The village police history gives a sense of the pace: the town hired its first police officer in 1937, formed a department in 1958, counted about 18,000 people in 1978 and noted then that "building construction is steadily increasing."

The modern turning point was 2017. In October of that year Foxconn announced a $10 billion flat-panel plant in Mount Pleasant expected to employ 13,000 people, and the village created Tax Incremental District No. 5 on November 20, 2017 to buy and prepare land for it, per the village's TID 5 page. The plant never reached that scale. In 2023 Microsoft agreed to buy part of the land for a data center, and that campus, covered below, is now the largest construction project in the village's history.

Mount Pleasant is the largest municipality in Racine County by property value. The Census 2024 gazetteer gives it 33.884 square miles of land. The Department of Revenue's 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report puts its population at 28,636 and its full (equalized) value at $7.08 billion, more than the City of Racine's $5.72 billion. About $2.29 billion of that sits inside tax increment districts, mostly the data center campus, and is not yet taxed by the school district or county.

The village wraps around the west and south sides of the City of Racine. Caledonia is to the north, the Village of Somers in Kenosha County is to the south, and the Village of Raymond and Yorkville area lie to the west across I-94. Two separate villages, Sturtevant and Elmwood Park, border it and are easy to mistake for Mount Pleasant on a map. Mount Pleasant also reaches Lake Michigan south of Racine along Sheridan Road, where the village owns Lake Park.

There is no Mount Pleasant ZIP code. Homes in the village use Racine ZIPs such as 53403, 53405 and 53406, and some near Sturtevant use 53177. On October 5, 2026, listings I reviewed in the village showed all four, and the Census geocoder placed Case High School's "Racine, WI 53406" address inside the Village of Mount Pleasant. The buyers I talk to from Lake County, Illinois expect a mailing city to match the tax bill. Here it usually doesn't, and the tax bill is the thing to trust.

Mount Pleasant has no formal neighborhoods, so I read it by area. The edges below are mine, so confirm any specific street against the village's zoning and master plan maps.

The east side borders the City of Racine and holds the village's older housing: small lots and 1940s to 1960s houses on streets like Hickory Grove Avenue and Coolidge Avenue, and the Lake Park area along Sheridan Road on Lake Michigan. The village's 2024 housing analysis lists dozens of 0.06 to 0.14 acre vacant lots here zoned RL-2, which tells you the lot sizes.

The highway corridors run through the middle. Highway 20 (Washington Avenue) carries Case High School, offices and shopping; Highway 11 (Durand Avenue) and Highway 31 (Green Bay Road) carry more commercial land and the subdivisions behind it. Village Hall and Campus Park sit on Campus Drive in this band, along with 1970s through 2000s subdivisions on quarter-acre to half-acre lots.

The new build areas are the south and east-of-I-94 edges. The village's 2025 Progress Report points to two: about 500 acres along Spring Street east of I-94, where three apartment projects broke ground in 2025, and the land west of Highway 31 between Braun Road and Highway 195, where more than 460 homes have been supported. New single-family streets with October 2026 listings include Copper Leaf Boulevard, Hoods Creek Path, Cove Court and Hunter Drive.

West of I-94 and north of Highway 11 is the data center campus, the former Foxconn site in TID 5. It is industrial land now, with farms and scattered rural houses still around its edges.

Mount Pleasant has a more mixed housing stock than Caledonia to the north. The 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 12,366 housing units. 7,700 of them, about 62%, are detached houses and 876 more, about 7%, are single-family attached. Buildings of five or more units account for 3,096 homes, about 25%. Of the 11,883 occupied homes, 9,126, or about 77%, are owner-occupied. The survey counts 78 seasonal units, so this is a year-round market.

The median home was built in 1983, against 1968 for Racine County. Construction came in steady waves: 2,274 homes in the 1970s, 1,670 in the 1980s, 1,887 in the 1990s and 2,207 in the 2000s, then a sharp drop to 684 in the 2010s. 238 date to 2020 or later, and that number is about to jump, because the village says about 1,000 new units were permitted or under construction in 2025. 626 homes predate 1940, mostly on the Racine edge.

The survey's median owner-estimated value is $292,400, plus or minus $15,219, against $251,400 for the county. The median gross rent is $1,127. These are five-year averages of owner and renter answers, so they lag the current market, which the next sections cover.

The village's own 2024 housing analysis found 889 undeveloped parcels zoned for homes, totaling about 1,032 acres, as of December 31, 2024. They range from tiny RL-2 lots near Racine to 35-acre RL-1 tracts on Gittings Road and RE (estate) zoned lots on Woodlake Court and County Line Road. The expectation I most often reset with Illinois buyers is that a 1990s or 2000s house here is reaching the age where furnace, water heater and roof come due together, even when it looks new.

This is the part of Mount Pleasant everyone has heard about, so here is the sequence as buildings and land. In April 2023, FOX6 reported that Microsoft agreed to buy a 315-acre parcel in TID 5 for $50 million to build a $1 billion data center, with the sale proceeds going to Foxconn as partial reimbursement for the land it helped the village buy in 2017. The agreement let Microsoft recoup 42% of property taxes on new construction, up to $5 million a year, and required it to start the first phase by July 2026 and the second by July 2033.

The project grew fast. WPR reported in July 2024 that Microsoft had announced a $3.3 billion investment that May and had just bought 173 more acres along Louis Sorenson Road for $33.89 million, after 32.1 acres there for $8.8 million in May. On June 23, 2026, Microsoft announced that its first facility, called Fairwater, was complete and fully operational, with nearly 550 full-time employees on site. A second facility next to it is scheduled for 2028, when Microsoft expects about 800 employees in the village. The company estimates it will spend $4.7 billion on construction in Wisconsin between 2024 and 2028.

More is approved. WPR reported in January 2026 that Microsoft filed plans for 15 more data centers on two campuses: nine on a 791-acre parcel at Durand Avenue, with 5.2 million square feet and a taxable value above $7.97 billion, and six on about 530 acres at International Drive, with 3.5 million square feet and more than $5.3 billion of value. CNBC reported that the village board approved both site plans unanimously, and that the village's community development director said they would not need more than the 8.4 million gallons of water a year Microsoft expects to receive from the City of Racine.

Foxconn is still there. WPR reported in January 2026 that Foxconn had invested more than $700 million and created more than 1,200 jobs by the end of 2024, against the 13,000 first announced, and that it paid the village $14.3 million and then $15 million in "makeup payments" because its land fell short of a $1.4 billion minimum guaranteed value for tax purposes. Foxconn announced a $569 million manufacturing expansion in November 2025.

For a homeowner, the practical effects are construction traffic, noise and light near the campus edges, and a big tax base. WPR also reported that Microsoft was sued in July 2026 over noise from the campus. Before buying within a mile or two of the campus I'd drive it at night and at shift change, and read the village's site plans for the land next door.

Mount Pleasant is a mid-priced market rising at about the county's pace. Zillow's typical home value for the village was $350,292 in August 2026, up 5.6% from $331,689 a year earlier and 10.0% over two years. Racine County was $318,751, also up about 5.6%. In the same month the City of Racine was $222,732, Caledonia $390,636 and Somers $390,384.

The upper tier is modest by Illinois North Shore standards. In ZIP 53406, which Zillow labels Mount Pleasant, the top-tier index for the most expensive third of homes was $475,805 in August 2026.

Sales are rising. Redfin's public monthly data counts 482 Mount Pleasant sales in the 12 months through May 2026, up from 421 the year before. Monthly medians ran from $314,500 in November 2025 to $387,500 in August 2025. In May 2026 the median was $344,990 on 53 sales, with a median of 38 days on market and homes selling at about 100.7% of list price.

Mount Pleasant is not a luxury house market, and I'd rather say that plainly. On October 5, 2026, Coldwell Banker's Mount Pleasant page showed 180 active or pending listings. The highest-priced house was $839,900, pending, on Cove Court, followed by new construction on Cove Court at $739,900, Hoods Creek Path at $689,900 to $699,900 and Copper Leaf Boulevard at $675,000. Every listing above $1 million was land: 38 acres on Taylor Avenue at $4.15 million, 5.71 acres on Highway 41 at $3 million, and farm parcels of 41 to 62 acres between about $1.2 million and $1.98 million. For $1 million-plus homes, Caledonia's lakefront and acreage are the nearby options.

The statewide backdrop: The Center Square reported on September 24, 2026 that the Wisconsin Realtors Association's August report showed a statewide median of $362,000, up 7.1%, and a southeast Wisconsin median of $387,000. With roughly 1,000 new units under construction, the bigger question for Mount Pleasant is how fast new supply arrives, which the development section covers.

Wisconsin property tax works through two values. The local assessor sets an assessed value, and the Department of Revenue sets a full (equalized) value; the ratio is the assessment level. Mount Pleasant reassesses every year as of January 1. Its assessor's page says the village contracts with Affiliated Property Valuation Services, that state law requires most assessments to be within 10% of market value, and that 2026 notices were mailed March 30.

The 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report puts Mount Pleasant at an assessment level of 0.98, a gross rate of 1.668% of full value, and an effective rate of 1.566% after the state school levy credit. For comparison, it gives the City of Racine 2.218%, Caledonia 1.497%, Sturtevant 1.563% and the Village of Somers 1.219%. The whole village is in the Racine Unified School District.

The village's own slice is falling. The 2025 Progress Report says the village tax rate was $6.09 per $1,000 in 2025 and will drop to $5.67 in 2026 because new construction added so much value. On top of that, WPR reported on September 29, 2026 that Microsoft gave up its incentive of up to $5 million a year, sending $4.9 million to the village and about $100,000 to the Racine County Economic Development Corporation, and the village president said every dollar would go to reducing the village's share of the tax bill. FOX6 reported the payment could recur annually for 20 years and estimated savings of about $35 a month for an average home.

A worked example. On a $350,000 primary residence, the 1.566% effective rate gives about $5,481 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 averaged $190 statewide for 2025-26, which would bring the bill to roughly $5,290, about 1.51% of price, before any effect of the 2026 village rate cut. A rental or second home gets no lottery credit.

Bills are mailed in December, per the village tax page: full payment or the first installment is due to the village by January 31, and the second installment to the Racine County Treasurer by July 31. Wisconsin's real estate transfer fee is $0.30 per $100 of value. This is general information, not tax advice.

Mount Pleasant touches Lake Michigan along Sheridan Road south of Racine, and most of that frontage people see is public. The village's Lake Park is at 3811 Sheridan Road; the Census geocoder places that address in the Village of Mount Pleasant.

The bluff here has needed repeated work. On December 6, 2017, TMJ4 reported that the Racine County Executive declared an emergency over bluff erosion in Caledonia and Mount Pleasant, and a state representative said one house had already been lost and a dozen more were in danger on the Mount Pleasant shoreline. The village's 2018 Lake Bluff Project page describes emergency stabilization in the Lake Park neighborhood that year, placing heavy stone at the toe of the slope and up the face to protect public infrastructure.

A second, larger project followed. The 2024 Lake Bluff Project page says the village built a revetment east of Sheridan Road between Pratt Avenue and Enos Avenue on village parkland, funded through FEMA's Pre-Disaster Mitigation program, confirmed September 20, 2022. The contract went to Veit & Company in July 2024, and construction was substantially complete by the start of 2025, with restoration and replanting following.

For a buyer, the lake side of Mount Pleasant is a small, older pocket rather than a lakefront estate market. I found no lakefront house among the village's October 2026 listings. If a bluff property does come up, the questions are the same as in Caledonia: a coastal engineer's assessment, the house's distance from the bluff edge, and the age and permits of any shore protection.

Mount Pleasant has run its own zoning since 1972, and its code is published on eCode360 through the village website. The 2024 housing analysis shows the residential districts a buyer will see on a parcel report: RE for estate lots, RL-1 and RL-2 for single-family lots of different sizes, and RM-2 for multifamily. The village's 2035 Master Plan Map, last updated August 21, 2023, shows planned land use around any parcel.

State law sets the floor near water. Because Mount Pleasant incorporated after April 30, 1994, Wisconsin Statute 61.353 requires it to keep shoreland zoning on land that was under county shoreland rules when it was a town, with a setback of at least 50 feet from the ordinary high-water mark, subject to limited exceptions. In Mount Pleasant that covers the Lake Michigan bluff and the Pike River and its creeks.

The Pike River is the village's big restoration project. The village's Pike River page says its stormwater utility district has restored about 5.2 miles of the river in a 17-square-mile drainage basin, acquired roughly 450 acres of corridor land, and finished all construction phases from the headwaters near Old Spring Street and Airline Road to County Line Road by 2017, with more than $9 million in grants and about $5 million from the Army Corps of Engineers. The 2025 Progress Report adds that the river remains on the state's impaired-waters list, largely for road-salt chlorides.

Basement water is a practical concern in parts of the village. The same report describes a 1.7-million-gallon underground storage tank built near Chicory Road with the Racine wastewater utility to reduce basement backups across a 1,200-acre area, and backup generators added at seven sewer lift stations. On any listing I'd ask for the basement's water history, whether there is a backflow valve and sump, and whether the street is in a mapped floodplain.

Mount Pleasant runs its own sanitary sewer and stormwater utilities, and its drinking water comes from the City of Racine. The village's sewer utility page says the residential sewer charge is a flat quarterly rate, not based on water use, billed at the end of each quarter, and that homes on municipal water are billed separately by the Racine Water Utility. The 2025 Progress Report says the village maintains 133 miles of roads and 176 miles of sewer mains, and built 3 miles of new sanitary sewer in 2025.

One wrinkle on the north side: the Caledonia Utility District's page says it provides sewer service to about 600 customers on the north side of Mount Pleasant. On a north-side listing, the sewer bill may come from Caledonia rather than Mount Pleasant.

Rural edges, especially west of I-94 and near the county line, still have homes on private wells and septic systems. I'd confirm the water and sewer source on every listing and ask for a well test and septic records where they apply.

Building new carries village fees. The housing reports page lists a park system impact fee of $1,000 and a law enforcement impact fee of $250 for a single-family home or any unit with three or more bedrooms, among other fees in the village's 2022 housing fee report. A buyer building on a vacant lot should get the full fee list from the village before pricing the project.

All of Mount Pleasant is in the Racine Unified School District; DOR's 2025 school tables put $4.79 billion of the village's value in Racine Unified and none elsewhere. The district enrolled 15,751.

The village's high school is Case High. The Census geocoder places Case at 7345 Washington Avenue in the Village of Mount Pleasant. In 2024-25 it enrolled 1,856." Wikipedia's summary of the district's attendance maps says Case serves almost all of Mount Pleasant, with some areas zoned to Park High School in Racine.

For lower grades, the same summary lists Dr. Jones, West Ridge, Schulte and Gifford as elementary schools serving parts of the village, and Mitchell and Gifford as K-8 schools for middle grades. Dr. Jones and West Ridge do not appear in the 2024-25 report card file, which suggests consolidation, so treat that list as dated.

Assignment follows the parcel and the district's current boundary map, not the mailing address. Confirm every address with Racine Unified before counting on a school.

Campus Park at 8500 Campus Drive, next to Village Hall, is the village's flagship park. Its splash pad is free and open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, and the village runs a summer live music series there.

The Pike River Pathway is the main trail. The village's Pike River page describes a paved bike trail running alongside the restored river, with parking at three access points: on Old Spring Street just under half a mile east of Stuart Road, at the south end of Timmer Lane, and just east of Oakes Road about a third of a mile north of Washington Avenue. The plan is to connect it south to the Kenosha County trail system that runs to Petrifying Springs Park in Somers.

On the lake, Lake Park at 3811 Sheridan Road sits on the newly protected bluff, and Sheridan Woods Park is nearby at 3235 Coolidge Avenue. The village's parks list also includes Dirkse, James Turek, Pheasant Creek, Polzin, Smolenski and Stewart-McBride parks, most with rentable shelters. The 2025 Progress Report says the village approved improvement plans for Dirkse, Drozd and James Turek parks, starting with Drozd in 2026, and completed an inventory of about 6,200 trees in parks and rights-of-way.

Beyond the village, River Bend Nature Center on the Root River in Caledonia rents canoes and kayaks, and Petrifying Springs Park in Somers is a short drive south.

I-94 runs north-south through the west side of Mount Pleasant, and Highways 20 (Washington Avenue) and 11 (Durand Avenue) run east from it into Racine. Highway 31 (Green Bay Road) and Highway 32 (Sheridan Road) run north-south through the east side.

I ran free-flow routes on the OSRM routing engine, which uses OpenStreetMap roads and no traffic, from Village Hall at 8811 Campus Drive on October 5, 2026. Treat these as best-case estimates.

From Village Hall, Vernon Hills is about 42 road miles and 54 minutes, and Lake Forest, Illinois about 39 miles and 49 minutes. Downtown Chicago's Ogilvie Center is about 68 miles and 86 minutes, and O'Hare about 65 miles and 97 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 27 miles and 37 minutes, and Milwaukee's Mitchell Airport about 21 miles and 28 minutes. Downtown Racine is about 7 miles and 14 minutes, and Lake Geneva about 40 miles and 59 minutes.

For a Lake County, Illinois comparison, Mount Pleasant is a bit closer to Vernon Hills than Caledonia and about the same distance as much of western McHenry County. The Loop is under 90 minutes only with no traffic, and O'Hare is not. I-94 construction traffic around the data center campus and rush hour on the Illinois tollway both add real time.

Mount Pleasant's closest rail stop is Amtrak's Hiawatha station in neighboring Sturtevant, about 1.1 road miles and three minutes from Village Hall on the same free-flow router. In Amtrak's published schedule feed for the week of October 12, 2026, the Sturtevant station has 6 weekday Hiawatha trains toward Chicago Union Station, the first at 7:43 a.m., with rides of 76 to 84 minutes, and 6 toward Milwaukee. The Borealis adds one train each way daily.

Metra's Union Pacific North line ends at Kenosha, about 13.6 road miles and 28 minutes from Village Hall. In Metra's GTFS schedule data for the same week, Kenosha has 10 weekday trains to Ogilvie and 9 back, with rides of 92 or 102 minutes, and 8 each way on weekends.

Mount Pleasant is one of the few southeast Wisconsin villages where a Chicago train commute is practical door to door: a few minutes to Sturtevant, then about 80 minutes to Union Station. With only six weekday Hiawatha trains, the timetable, not the drive, sets the day.

Mount Pleasant is building at a pace few Wisconsin places match. The village's 2025 Progress Report says $996.6 million of net new construction was added to its 2025 value, 17.15% of its total equalized value and second in the state behind the City of Madison in dollars. About 1,000 housing units were permitted to break ground or under construction in 2025, and projects with more than 1,000 more units were under review.

The village's December 2025 project list names the housing. On Spring Street east of I-94, Springs at Mount Pleasant (280 units), Seasons at Spring Street (320 units) and a third 220-unit building were under construction. Seasons at Mount Pleasant on Yates Drive finished its second phase in 2025 for 360 units total. Pike River Crossing on Linden Road had 80 units in its current phase, and its final plat covers 96 lots. Smaller projects include 19 units at the Villas at Coach Hills and six lots on Emstan Hills Road.

A larger project is stuck. BizTimes reported in June 2025 that Cardinal Capital Management and Northterra Real Estate Group planned 618 units on 66 acres at 7222 Braun Road: 575 apartments, 34 duplex units and nine single-family homes, on land they bought in January 2024 for $2.9 million. The same article said Bear Development proposed 336 homes on 60 acres next door, including 128 single-family lots. The Business Journal reported in January 2026 that the 618-unit project remained in limbo while incentives were discussed.

Tax increment financing pays for much of the infrastructure. The Progress Report says the village's seven TIDs had created $2.3 billion of new value and are projected to support $3.5 billion before they close. TID 5, the data center district, started at $30.2 million of value in 2017, had added $1.7 billion and can run until 2049. TID 1 on Highway 20 near I-94 supported Park 94 and Aurora Medical Center. For a buyer, the districts fund roads and sewers now and return their value to the general tax base when they close.

The village has its own police department; the Mount Pleasant Police Department's history page traces it to the town's first officer in 1937 and a formal department in 1958. Fire and ambulance service come from the South Shore Fire Department, which the village says staffs four stations around Mount Pleasant around the clock, and whose department page lists 57 members, 38 of them paramedics. 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.

The trade-offs are concrete. The campus brings years of construction, traffic and the noise complaints that reached court in 2026, so the location of a house relative to TID 5 matters. The village is not a luxury market, and its small lakefront has needed public bluff repairs. Schools are all Racine Unified. Basement water has been an issue in parts of the village, which is why the Chicory Road storage tank exists. And much of the new supply is apartments, so the mix around a house can change quickly.

I'd pull the tax bill and the village's site plans for the land around the house before falling for it.