Powers Lake, WI

Powers Lake is not a village and has no government of its own. It is a lake, a lake district and a Census Bureau statistical area, and the land around it belongs to three different municipalities. The Wisconsin DNR lists the lake at 451 acres in Kenosha and Walworth counties. The District of Powers Lake, the lake's management district, divides the lake 75% to the Town of Randall, 16% to the Town of Wheatland and 9% to the Village of Bloomfield.

The Census Bureau's Powers Lake census-designated place covers only the Kenosha County side. The 2024 gazetteer puts it at 2.352 square miles of land and 0.655 square miles of water, and Wikipedia's entry notes that the Walworth County part of the old CDP became part of the Village of Bloomfield on December 20, 2011. The 2020 census counted 1,401 people in the CDP.

The mailing address doesn't help you sort this out. Powers Lake has its own post office, but ZIP 53159 is a post-office-box ZIP. Street addresses around the lake carry Genoa City 53128 or Burlington 53105. On October 5, 2026, the same $4.9 million lakefront house showed as "Randall, WI 53128" on one listing site and under a Burlington 53105 path on another. Neither tells you the municipality, and the municipality is what sets your taxes, your schools and your zoning office.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the buyers I talk to assume a lake has one town around it, the way Fox Lake or Lake Villa does. Powers Lake has three, and I'd confirm the municipality on the tax bill for any parcel before comparing prices.

The lake has had three names. The District of Powers Lake's history page says it was first called Lakeville, then Nippersink, before taking the name of James B. Powers, one of the area's first postmasters. The surrounding land was farmed for wheat first. In the 1870s, the district's history says, the railroad was running three trains a day from Chicago, which opened markets for oats, corn and hay.

Recreation came next. The same page dates lake recreation to the 1880s and the development of the north shore to the 1890s. Ice was a business too: companies cut ice on the south shore of Powers Lake and the north shore of Lake Benedict in the 1890s, and five ice houses eventually stood on Powers Lake. The district's history lists the Sportsmen's League of Kenosha County, formed in 1905, and the Powers Lake Yacht Club, formed in 1912.

The governments came later. The Town of Randall dates itself to 1850, when Kenosha County was created out of Racine County and the town was split off from Wheatland and named for Governor Alexander Randall; its town hall was built in 1938. The lake district was founded in 1985, according to its own history, in response to development and heavier recreational use. The Walworth County shore joined the Village of Bloomfield when that village incorporated in 2011, which I cover in the Bloomfield guide.

Powers Lake is a mid-sized, mostly deep lake. The DNR's facts page gives 451 acres, a maximum depth of 33 feet and a mean depth of 16 feet, and classes it as a drainage lake. The lake district uses 459 acres and adds that the lake is 1.3 miles long with 5.3 miles of shoreline. The DNR lists largemouth bass as abundant; panfish, northern pike and walleye as common; and smallmouth bass as present.

The lake has two named bays that matter to anyone buying on them. Jefferson Bay and Honey Bear Bay are shallower, and the district's common-sense boating guidance asks owners never to take a wakeboard boat with full ballast into either bay and to avoid the bays in low water. In high water, the district's rules page says the first restriction is a 400-foot slow-no-wake lane around the whole lake, and the second adds all of Jefferson Bay.

The DNR also lists seven aquatic invasive species for Powers Lake, including Eurasian water-milfoil, a hybrid Eurasian and northern water-milfoil, curly-leaf pondweed and zebra mussels. The lake district posts a milfoil treatment map on its site, so treatment is an ongoing line item, not a one-time fix.

Public access is real. The DNR counts two public boat landings. The Town of Randall charges $10 for a daily launch, $60 for an annual resident pass and $80 for an annual nonresident pass, and in July 2026 it moved the landings to card-only kiosks for daily passes. Annual passes are bought in person at Town Hall with a driver's license and boat registration.

I ran 22 points around the shoreline through the Census Bureau's geocoder on October 5, 2026, using the lake outline from OpenStreetMap. The pattern was clean, and it is the most useful map of this lake I know of.

The Town of Randall holds the south shore, the east shore and most of the lake. Every point on those shores came back as Randall Joint School District 1 for kindergarten through eighth grade and Wilmot Union High School District for high school. This is where the Knolls and Lake Knolls streets sit on the east and southeast side, around 391st and 392nd avenues and 91st and 92nd streets, and where the Jefferson Island subdivision sits on the south side off 400th Avenue. Randall's fire station 1 is at 38820 93rd Street in Powers Lake.

The Town of Wheatland holds the north shore. Points at roughly the top of the lake came back as Wheatland, with Wheatland Joint School District 1 and the Westosha Central High School district. The town line runs close to the shoreline there, so a house a block back from the north shore can be in Randall while the lakefront in front of it is in Wheatland. That is a parcel-by-parcel check.

The Village of Bloomfield holds the west end, in Walworth County. Those points came back as Genoa City Joint School District 2 and the Lake Geneva-Genoa City union high school district. Powers Lake Road and Honey Bear Bay Estates are on this side, and Lake Benedict and Tombeau Lake sit just beyond it. The village's own zoning, utilities and village-wide numbers are in my Bloomfield guide, and the Genoa City address that covers much of this area is explained in my Genoa City guide.

The Census numbers describe the Kenosha County side only, and the sample is small, so I read them as a shape rather than exact counts. The 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 971 homes in the Powers Lake CDP. Of those, 925 are detached houses and 46 are single-family attached; there are no apartment buildings in the count.

The seasonal share is the defining number. Of the 971 homes, 300 are counted as vacant, and 290 of those (plus or minus 145) are held for seasonal or recreational use. That is roughly 30% of the housing on the Kenosha side, far above the 38 seasonal units the same survey finds in the Village of Genoa City. Of the 671 occupied homes, 648 are owner-occupied.

The houses span more than a century. The survey's median year built is 1979. It counts 140 homes from before 1940, 148 from the 1950s and 271 from the 1980s, the largest single decade, then a slower pace since: 56 from the 2000s, 41 from the 2010s and 25 from 2020 or later. On the ground that means original cottages, postwar houses and 1980s builds sitting next to newer houses on the same lake, and some lakefront lots where the house is worth less than the frontage.

The owner-reported median value in the CDP is $285,100, with a margin of plus or minus $75,617. That median mixes off-water houses with lakefront and leaves out the seasonal homes entirely, so it understates the lake market. I use it only as a floor.

The broad index is steady. Zillow's home value index for Powers Lake was $439,752 in August 2026, up 4.3% from $421,597 a year earlier and up about 57% from $280,351 in August 2019. In the same file, Twin Lakes was $412,998, Zillow's Bloomfield series $515,199 and the Village of Genoa City $311,884. Zillow's index covers typical homes, which on this lake means mostly lake-access and off-water houses.

The sales count is the more telling number. Redfin's public market data for the Powers Lake area (the Kenosha side) shows 34 to 40 sales a year from 2017 through 2021. In the three 12-month periods ending May 2024, May 2025 and May 2026, it shows 20, 24 and 21. Fewer houses are changing hands than five years ago, and the ones that do sell include more expensive lakefront than before.

Typical months look like this. In the 12 months through May 2026, Redfin's monthly medians ran from $290,000 to $630,000 in most months: $630,000 on five sales in August 2025, $350,000 on three in November 2025, and $397,450 on two in May 2026. Median days on market ran from 25 to 257 days across those months, which is what a lake with this few sales looks like.

Recent closed sales near the water fill in the middle. A four-bedroom, 2,885-square-foot house built in 1998 in the Knolls, with water access to the lake, closed at $499,900 in fall 2026; the same page shows it sold for $316,000 in July 2021. A 1964 four-bedroom house in the Knolls about two and a half blocks from the lake closed at $490,000 in December 2025.

Powers Lake has a real luxury tier, and it is newer than most people think. In Redfin's monthly data for the Kenosha side, not one month from 2012 through 2022 had a median sale price of $1 million or more. In the 36 months from June 2023 through May 2026, eight months did: $1,100,000 in July 2023, $2,345,000 on three sales in August 2023, $1,100,000 in January 2024, $1,700,000 on two sales in November 2024, $1,365,000 on two sales in January 2025, $1,035,000 in May 2025, $2,380,000 in February 2026 and $1,840,000 on two sales in April 2026.

Working back from those medians, my arithmetic says at least nine Kenosha-side sales closed at $1 million or more in those three years, and at least three at roughly $2.3 million or more. Two of the three August 2023 sales had to be at or above $2,345,000 for that median to hold. These are minimums; the real count could be higher.

The top of the current market is one house. On October 5, 2026, LakePlace showed one active Powers Lake listing: a five-bedroom, five-bath contemporary at 8860 391st Court in the Town of Randall, asking $4,900,000. The listing gives 4,026 square feet, 1.87 acres, about 114 feet of shoreline, an inground pool, a private pier, a 1989 build, a September 24, 2026 list date, the Randall J1 and Wilmot schools, and 2025 taxes of $26,120.

On the Bloomfield end, a 2014 lakefront house on Powers Lake Road with 82 feet of frontage and 4,424 square feet closed at $2,405,000, with a 2022 tax bill of $28,686; the page does not show the closing date. The owner-reported Census figures point the same way: the ACS estimates 24 owner-occupied homes on the Kenosha side at $2 million or more and 24 at $1.5 million to $2 million, with margins of about plus or minus 26 to 29 that make them a signal more than a count.

So the honest picture has three tiers. Off-water houses sell from the high $300,000s to the low $600,000s; an active 1994 ranch on 1.56 acres in Jefferson Island, next to a town-preserved conservancy lot, asks $635,000 after starting at $690,000 in June. Lake-access houses in the Knolls trade near $500,000. Lakefront starts around $1 million and has closed above $2.3 million several times since 2023. For comparison next door, an A-frame built in 2023 with 89 feet on Tombeau Lake asks $1,549,000.

Wisconsin bills on assessed value, and each municipality assesses at its own level. The Department of Revenue's 2025 report puts the Town of Randall at 73% of market, the Town of Wheatland at 100% and the Village of Bloomfield at 89%. So a mill rate on a Powers Lake tax bill only means something next to its town's assessment level.

Kenosha County's 2025 tax-rate sheet gives a net rate of $15.08 per $1,000 of assessed value for Randall parcels in the Randall grade school and Wilmot High districts, with a lottery and gaming credit of $223.86 and a first dollar credit of $74.62. For Wheatland parcels in the Wheatland grade school and Central High districts, the net rate is $10.63, with credits of $195.64 and $65.21. On the Bloomfield end, the Walworth County Treasurer's 2025 sheet adds to about $15.48 per $1,000 of assessed value for a Genoa City J2 parcel, including the District of Powers Lake's own line of about $0.11. The DOR's town-wide effective rates come out at 1.098% of market value for Randall, 1.082% for Wheatland and 1.269% for the Village of Bloomfield.

A worked example on a $2,000,000 lakefront house, assuming the assessment matched each town's 2025 level. In Randall: about $1,450,600 assessed at $15.08 is about $21,875, or about $21,577 after both credits on a primary residence. In Wheatland: about $2,000,000 assessed at $10.63 is about $21,260, or about $21,000 after credits. In Bloomfield J2: about $1,780,000 assessed at $15.48 is about $27,560 before credits. That is roughly 1.1% of value on the Kenosha side and close to 1.4% on the Bloomfield end. The lottery credit applies only to a primary residence, so a second home pays a little more.

Assessments lag sales, which changes the math on expensive lakefront. The $4.9 million Randall listing showed 2025 taxes of $26,120, about 0.5% of the asking price. At Randall's 2025 rate and assessment level, a bill set at that price would be roughly $53,600. How fast a new owner's assessment catches up depends on the town's revaluation schedule, and it is a question I'd put to the assessor before buying.

Wisconsin's real estate transfer fee is $0.30 per $100 of value, normally paid by the seller; on $4.9 million that is $14,700. This is general information, not tax advice; your bill depends on the parcel, its districts, your credits and the assessor.

Powers Lake runs on a tighter rule set than most Illinois buyers expect, and the Town of Randall enforces it with its own water patrol. The lake district's rules summary says the whole lake is slow-no-wake from sunset until 10:00 AM. It is always slow-no-wake within 200 feet of shore, and within 100 feet of any other boat, marked swim area, raft, pier, buoyed area or diver's flag.

The traffic lane is everything more than 200 feet from shore. Towing skiers, tubers and similar devices is allowed only from 10:00 AM to sunset, never within 200 feet of shore, and only in a counterclockwise pattern in the traffic lane. Tow lines can't exceed 100 feet, no more than two people can be towed at once, and the boat needs a driver and an observer. Personal watercraft can't run between sunset and sunrise. Parasailing needs a special permit. The district's printable flyer cites the Town of Randall's ordinance chapter 20 and state law, chapter 30, as the full rules.

Wake boats are the live issue. The district's surf patterns page says the Randall Town Board and water patrol approved a temporary surf pattern meant to keep wake-surfing in deeper water. In the district's 2020 survey memo, prepared by the regional planning commission, the three most significant concerns were general water quality, the number of boats and the number of wakeboard boats. If you plan to run a ballast boat from your own pier, read the current Randall ordinance first.

Floating equipment has its own limits. The flyer says piers may not exceed 100 feet in length and must sit 12.5 feet from the property and riparian lines, except piers unchanged since before 1993. Rafts must be within 100 feet of shore, mooring buoys within 150 feet, and everything must stay inside the owner's riparian zone.

The lake has a single management body across both counties. The District of Powers Lake describes itself as a special-purpose unit of government with five elected commissioners, each serving three-year terms, and two appointed commissioners, one from Kenosha County and one from the Town of Randall. Every property owner in the district can vote on lake matters, whether or not the property is their permanent residence. Its printed materials use the formal name Powers Lake Protection and Rehabilitation District.

Its work is water quality. The district says it has bought wetlands that feed the lake and runs water testing and lake-level recording, with level data posted from 2013 through 2025. Its wetland page says wetlands cover about 312 acres, 14% of the area draining to the lake. Its resolutions list includes property acquisitions of 23 acres and 4 acres in 2022, a land purchase in 2000 and a dredging resolution in 2013.

The district holds an annual meeting. The 2026 meeting was on Friday, August 7, at 7:00 PM at Randall Town Hall, and the district says agendas are posted two days ahead at Town Hall and the Powers Lake post office. For a buyer, the minutes are worth reading for whatever is in front of the lake that year: milfoil treatment, dredging, the surf pattern.

The cost shows up on your tax bill. The Walworth County 2025 rate sheet lists the District of Powers Lake at about $0.11 per $1,000 of assessed value for the Bloomfield shore, about $110 a year on $1 million of assessed value. The Kenosha County sheet I have doesn't show the district's line separately, so check a recent Randall or Wheatland bill for it.

The shoreline has been studied for decades. A 1990 shoreline survey, reported on the district's site, found 133 shore protection structures (71 bulkheads, 33 riprap revetments and 29 beaches) covering about 47% of the shoreline, and found most of the unprotected shoreline stable and vegetated.

On the Randall and Wheatland shores, Kenosha County writes the shoreland rules. The county's zoning and shoreland ordinance, chapter 12 of the county code as adopted in August 2018, covers unincorporated land within 1,000 feet of a lake. It requires a shore yard of at least 75 feet from the ordinary high-water mark and treats the first 35 feet inland as a vegetative buffer where clearing is restricted. Owners may open a viewing and access corridor of at least 35 feet for every 100 feet of frontage.

Powers Lake gets a specific break on hard surfaces. The ordinance names Powers Lake on its list of "highly developed" shorelines in Kenosha County, along with lakes such as Lily, Camp, Benedict and Shangri-La. On those lakes a residential lot may have up to 30% impervious surface within 300 feet of the water, and up to 40% under the ordinance's maximum standard with the required mitigation. That is more room for driveways, patios and roofs than the 15% general baseline in the state's shoreland rules.

Boathouses are allowed but small. The county ordinance allows one per shoreland lot, inside the viewing corridor, no larger than 450 square feet measured outside wall to outside wall, one story, and with no plumbing, heating, cooking, patio doors or decks. Expanding a non-conforming house that sits between 35 and 75 feet from the water is possible, with conditions.

Piers follow the state first. The DNR's pier planner exempts a new pier from a permit if no part is wider than 6 feet and the loading platform is no larger than 200 square feet. It allows two boat slips for the first 50 feet of shoreline and one for each additional full 50 feet, and it exempts piers first placed before April 2012. The lake's own 100-foot length limit and 12.5-foot setback, covered above, apply on top.

The Bloomfield end is different. The Village of Bloomfield runs its own zoning on its shore, and I cover its rules in the Bloomfield guide.

Plan on a private well and a private septic system or holding tank. In the lake district's 2020 survey memo, written comments on sanitation repeatedly asked for municipal water and sewers to be installed and discussed septic tanks and holding tanks near the lake, which tells you there is no public sewer around most of the shore. The regional planning commission's 1991 lake management plan recommended that a public sewer system be considered and estimated that septic systems supplied about 10% of the lake's phosphorus load; I found no record that one was built.

That puts the septic system near the top of the inspection list. On a lake lot with a pre-1940 cottage, I'd ask for the county sanitary permit history, the last pumping record and whether the system is a conventional field, a mound or a holding tank, and I'd budget for replacement if the paperwork is thin. A well test belongs in the same contract.

Town services are basic and rural. The Town of Randall's directory lists a volunteer fire department and a water patrol chief, and the town's fire station 1 is in Powers Lake on 93rd Street. Garbage and recycling in Randall are picked up by John's Disposal Service, according to the town. The town also leases boat slips and shore racks at its municipal piers through wait lists, which matters if you buy off the water and want a slip.

Building permits in Randall go through the town building inspector, with Kenosha County handling shoreland zoning. Wheatland runs its own building inspector and a town constable for ordinance enforcement.

Powers Lake uses the Wisconsin pattern of a K-8 district feeding a separate union high school, and the pairing depends on the shore. The district for each shore comes from the Census geocoder runs described above.

On the Randall shores, the K-8 district is Randall Joint School District 1, which runs one school, Randall Consolidated School, for 4K through grade 8, with an enrollment of 560. High school is Wilmot Union High School District: Wilmot High, enrollment 840." The $4.9 million Randall listing names the same two schools.

On the Wheatland north shore, the K-8 district is Wheatland Joint School District 1: Wheatland Center Elementary, 4K through grade 8, enrollment 644." High school is the Westosha Central district: Central High, enrollment 1,309." The DOR's 2025 report shows Wheatland split between the Central and Wilmot high school districts, and the north shore points I checked all fell in Central.

On the Bloomfield end, the pairing is Genoa City Joint School District 2 (Brookwood Elementary and Brookwood Middle) and Badger High School in Lake Geneva. The Genoa City guide covers those schools in more detail.

Boundaries follow parcels, not the lake. Confirm the district for the exact address with the district office before relying on it.

Powers Lake is about 3 miles north of the Illinois line, and the fastest way south is U.S. 12 through Richmond. I ran drive times from the east shore through the OSRM public router on October 5, 2026. These are free-flow estimates; real traffic adds time.

To Vernon Hills, the route takes county roads P and O to U.S. 12, then Illinois 120 and Illinois 60, about 34.9 miles and 54 minutes. To the Loop at Ogilvie, it is about 68.3 miles and 97 minutes. O'Hare is about 55.7 miles and 98 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 48.0 miles and 75 minutes, mostly on Wisconsin 83 and Wisconsin 36, and Milwaukee Mitchell airport is about 47.8 miles and 66 minutes.

The closer drives are short. Downtown Lake Geneva is about 10.3 miles and 21 minutes by way of Powers Lake Road, Pell Lake Drive and U.S. 12. The Village of Twin Lakes is about 2.8 miles and 7 minutes, and the Village of Genoa City is about 5.3 miles and 12 minutes. Randall Consolidated School is about 1.9 miles from the east shore.

There is no train in Powers Lake. The nearest Metra stations are in Illinois and Kenosha. In Metra's GTFS schedule for Wednesday, October 14, 2026, Fox Lake on the Milwaukee District North line, about 15.3 miles and 23 minutes away, has 16 weekday trains to Chicago Union Station taking 88 to 107 minutes. Antioch on the North Central Service line, about 16.8 miles and 29 minutes away by Illinois 173, has 7 weekday trains to Union Station taking 92 to 103 minutes. Kenosha on the Union Pacific North line, about 28.1 miles and 48 minutes away, has 10 weekday trains to Ogilvie taking 92 to 102 minutes.

Most of what there is to do here is the lake. Powerboating, pontoon cruising, waterskiing and tubing, sailing, paddling, swimming and fishing are all listed as common uses in the lake district's 2020 survey memo, and the DNR's fish list runs from largemouth bass to walleye. The same memo reports bluegill, crappie, bass, northern pike, walleye and yellow perch caught through the ice in winter.

There are small parks on the shore. OpenStreetMap shows Powers Lake Park, Lakeside Park and Bayview Park on the east side of the lake, and a closed listing in the Knolls describes a beach, two parks and boat slip rentals within a few blocks. The district's boating guidance mentions sailboat races and a rock bar where boats anchor on summer afternoons.

The Nippersink lakes are next door. Lake Benedict and Tombeau Lake sit just west of Powers Lake in the Village of Bloomfield, and Nippersink Golf Resort is on Tombeau Road; the Genoa City guide covers the golf course and the village parks. For a bigger lake day, Geneva Lake is about 21 minutes away through Lake Geneva.

For errands, the Village of Twin Lakes is about 7 minutes south and Genoa City about 12 minutes southwest. Antioch and Richmond in Illinois are both within about half an hour. The Town of Randall's site notes that the Country Thunder music festival has been held in the town for more than 15 years.

Police service depends on the shore. The Towns of Randall and Wheatland do not list their own police departments; on the Kenosha County side, law enforcement comes from the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department, Randall runs a water patrol on the lake, and Wheatland has a town constable for ordinance enforcement. On the Bloomfield end, the Bloomfield Police Department provides police service. Fire and rescue come from the Randall and Wheatland volunteer fire departments on the Kenosha side and from Bloomfield-Genoa City Fire & Rescue in Bloomfield.

I don't characterize the safety of any area. Anyone who wants the data can contact the agency for the parcel or look up its reported figures on the FBI's Crime Data Explorer.

Lake-access houses near $500,000 give you a lake address and a launch pass, and lakefront from about $1 million into the $2 million range gives you a pier on a 451-acre lake with real depth. For comparison, Zillow's top-tier index for ZIP 53125, the Fontana side of Geneva Lake, was $1,244,323 in August 2026 in the same data set, and that is the typical upper-tier house, not the lakefront.

The Kenosha side ran about 1.1% of value in Randall and Wheatland in 2025, against close to 1.4% on the Bloomfield end of the same lake.

The trade-offs are concrete. Three municipalities mean three tax rates, three school pairings and two zoning offices on one lake, so comparisons between listings are harder than they look. Most of the shore runs on wells and septic or holding tanks. Weekend boat traffic and wake boats are the lake's own top complaints. The lakefront market is thin, with one active listing on October 5, 2026, so timing matters more than on a bigger lake. And assessments trail sales, so the tax bill on the listing can understate what you'll pay.