Racine, WI

Racine sits where the Root River meets Lake Michigan, 22 miles south of Milwaukee and 60 miles north of Chicago, per Wikipedia's city entry. The city covers 15.66 square miles, and most of its lake edge is public. The city's parks department says it manages more than 1,100 acres of parks and beaches, and the best of that land faces the lake.

Walking the shore from north to south gives the clearest picture. North of downtown, the bluff along Michigan Boulevard holds the city's largest private lakefront lots. Below it are the Racine Zoo, Zoo Beach and North Beach, the city's main swimming beach. The Root River mouth and the harbor come next, with Reefpoint Marina, the two historic lighthouses and the condo towers on Lake Avenue. South of the harbor, Pershing Park and Samuel Myers Park run along the water, and the Southside Historic District climbs the bluff behind them on Main Street and Wisconsin Avenue.

The Lake Michigan Pathway ties it together. The North Beach page notes that a portion of the pathway runs between the beach and the park, and the parks department maintains it year-round.

For a buyer, this means two different lakefront markets inside one city. On the north side, a handful of homes own the bluff and the beach below it. On the south side, the historic houses on Main Street mostly sit across the street from or above the lake, and the shoreline in front of the downtown is parkland, marina and condominium. The Lake County, Illinois buyers I talk to who look north at Wisconsin lake property usually ask first whether Racine has a Lake Forest-style lakefront. It has a small one, and the next sections show exactly where.

If you want a house in Racine that owns Lake Michigan frontage, Michigan Boulevard north of the zoo is where the list starts. The city's 2026 assessment roll, completed May 21, 2026 as part of a citywide revaluation, is the best public record of where the value sits.

By my count of that roll, the 14 odd-numbered homes from 3001 to 3433 Michigan Boulevard, on the lake side of the street, carry a median assessment of $1,550,300. Thirteen of the 14 are assessed at $1 million or more, the range runs from $993,900 to $1,853,600, and the median lot is about one acre. The homes across the street, on the even-numbered side, have a median of $454,100 on lots around a quarter acre. That gap is what owning the bluff and the beach below it is worth here.

The legal descriptions name the old plats along this stretch: Beachwood, the Farrand Addition and Lake Crest. One sale shows what these lots hold. BizTimes reported in August 2017 that 3433 Michigan Boulevard, a 9,173-square-foot, five-bedroom house on about an acre, sold at auction for $1.27 million according to state records. The paper described 120 feet of private beach, a heated saltwater infinity pool, six fireplaces and a 2008 renovation. It had last been listed at $1.99 million and had sold for $1.5 million in 2015. The house was built in 1930 by William H. Pugh, founder of what became W.H. Pugh Oil Co. The broker told BizTimes the taxes were about $50,000 a year at the time. The 2026 roll assesses the same parcel at $1,670,100.

Two short streets nearby round out the north-side lake market. Michigan Court, in the Michigan Meadows subdivision, has 13 homes with a 2026 median assessment of $688,100 and a top value of $1,482,400. Lighthouse Drive, in the Greater North Bay Addition at the city's northern edge, has 13 homes with a median of $565,800 and a top of $1,422,400.

Across the whole city, the roll lists 23,967 parcels that are residential only, with a median assessment of $187,300. Just 20 of them are assessed at $1 million or more, and 14 of those 20 are on Michigan Boulevard. That is the Racine luxury market in one sentence: a single bluff, a few side streets and one or two homes on Main Street.

The south side of Racine is the city's architecture district, and Main Street is its spine. The Southside Historic District was listed on the National Register in 1977, roughly bounded by Lake Michigan, DeKoven Avenue, Villa Street and Eighth Street, per the Racine County NRHP list. Its Wikipedia entry) counts more than 500 contributing buildings built from 1842 to 1924.

The houses read like a style catalog. The Eli R. Cooley House at 1135 Main Street is a Greek Revival house designed by Lucas Bradley and built from 1851 to 1854, which the NRHP list quotes as having been described as the state's finest remaining Greek Revival residence. The Chauncey Hall House at 1235 Main Street is one of the earliest surviving Gothic Revival houses in Wisconsin. The Henry S. Durand house at 1012 Main Street is an 1856 cream brick Italianate villa. The George Q. Erskine house at 920 Main Street is a High Victorian Italianate with a four-story tower, and the Joseph Miller house at 1100 Main Street is an 1893 Queen Anne with a round corner tower. The Charles Carpenter house at 1324 Main Street is an 1896 Georgian Revival with four Ionic columns, and the Samuel Curtis Johnson cottage at 1737 Wisconsin Avenue is a 1903 Picturesque Gothic cottage the S. C. Johnson founder designed himself.

The district also holds two modern landmarks. The Thomas P. Hardy House at 1319 Main Street is a 1905 Frank Lloyd Wright Prairie School house that steps down the bluff above Lake Michigan. Its street side is mostly stucco with an entry right at the sidewalk, while the lake side opens into a two-story living room. It was renovated from 2013 to 2015 and remains a private home. Wikipedia also notes the OS House, a LEED Platinum house by Johnsen Schmaling Architects on the shore in the same district, which the American Institute of Architects recognized in 2011.

On value, the 2026 roll shows the lake side of Main Street at a premium to the rest of the district. By my count, the 22 residential-only parcels on the odd-numbered side of Main Street from 800 to 1999 have a median assessment of $592,000 and a median lot of about 0.39 acre, against $459,300 for the 45 parcels on the even side. Only one Main Street home in that stretch is assessed above $1 million.

The rules matter before you buy. The city's historic preservation page says National Register listing is honorary in Racine and gives the city no added regulatory authority. Local landmarks are different: exterior changes there go to the city's Planning, Heritage, and Design Commission, and the page lists five current local landmarks, including 1135 and 1001 Main Street and 936 Main Street. The city also publishes residential design guidelines from 2022 for those properties.

Racine has real $1 million homes, but not many, and they almost never come to market at once. I want to be plain about that, because the price picture inside the city is very different from the villages next door.

The dated public sales I could find tell the story. Beyond the 2017 auction of 3433 Michigan Boulevard at $1.27 million, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran a story in October 2025 headlined "Recent sales with Lake Michigan views include $1.6 million Racine house." In November 2025, the Milwaukee Business Journal reported a Lake Michigan estate with 250 feet of shoreline listed at almost $3 million. Both outlets blocked my fetch of the article text, and "Racine" in a headline often means a Racine mailing address in Wind Point, Caledonia or Mount Pleasant, so treat these as the top of the area market until the address is confirmed. Next door in the Village of Wind Point, BizTimes reported a $3.1 million sale in December 2023 for a 13,120-square-foot home on 3.8 acres with more than 600 feet of frontage.

The live listings on October 5, 2026 show how thin the top is. The listing feed for the Racine mailing area counted 165 active home listings, averaging about $327,000 and $139 per square foot. The highest-priced single-family listing asked $875,000 for a historic house and carriage house on about an acre on 10th Street, a few blocks from the lake. Next was an 1895 Queen Anne at 1520 College Avenue in the Southside district at $720,000. LakePlace showed only three listings it tagged as lake property that day.

Condos are the other way to own the view. The condo feed showed a 2,360-square-foot penthouse at 333 Lake Avenue asking $575,000 and a third-floor unit at The Atwater with Lake Michigan views asking $429,900. A 54-foot slip at the building's marina was listed at $25,000. The 2026 roll shows 72 residential units at 333 Lake Avenue assessed from $204,000 to $600,000, with a median of $332,500, plus 249 separately assessed boat slips. The marina listing calls the building Lakeshore Towers.

The Census agrees with the roll. The 2020-2024 ACS counts 19,236 owner-occupied homes in the city and puts about 374 of them, roughly 1.9%, at $500,000 or more by owner estimate. The $1 million brackets are too small for the survey to measure well.

For a $2 million to $5 million buyer, the honest answer is that the city of Racine offers about 14 true lakefront houses on one bluff, and the larger estates sit in Wind Point and along the Caledonia shore to the north. I'd treat any Michigan Boulevard listing as a rare event and price it off the handful of comparable bluff sales, not the city averages.

North Beach is the public front yard of the north-side lake market. The city's North Beach page lists it at 100 Kewaunee Street, open 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. year-round, with lifeguards from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily from the first week of June to the last week of August. It has beach volleyball, a wheelchair-accessible mat to the shoreline, a large playground at 1501 Michigan Boulevard reached by boardwalk paths, and Racine's Beachside Oasis concessions and summer music, which close Labor Day weekend. The city notes that North Beach was the first Wisconsin beach certified as a Blue Wave clean beach by the National Clean Beaches Coalition and that USA Today readers voted it fourth among freshwater beaches in 2016.

Zoo Beach sits directly to the north, next to the zoo, and the city's beach page describes it as a more natural lakeshore beach with weekend lifeguards, no restrooms or concessions, a staircase from street level and good beach glass.

Water quality is tracked. Spectrum News reported in June 2026 that the Racine Public Health Department's 2026 report card gave North and Zoo beaches a B, with 87% of samples from 2020 to 2025 meeting water quality standards. The report flagged gulls as the main bacteria source in July and August and said nearly five acres of dune habitat, 31% of the total, had been lost since 2018 to storms and high lake levels. The beaches draw an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 visitors a year.

The Racine Zoo covers 32 acres on the shore at Goold Street and North Main Street, on the site since 1925, and is run by the nonprofit Racine Zoological Society with more than 100 species. The castle-like Vanishing Kingdom building dates to 1939.

For Michigan Boulevard and Michigan Court owners, all of this is a short walk. It also means summer traffic and parking on the streets near the beach, which is worth seeing on a July weekend before you buy.

Racine's harbor holds the largest marina on Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shore. WGTD reported in June 2025 that Reefpoint Marina, a county-owned facility built in 1987, is the largest Lake Michigan marina in Wisconsin, with more than 900 slips and a vacancy rate under 10%. A four-year revitalization costing more than $30 million began that spring, replacing 40-year-old docks, fixing a slip mix short on large-boat slips, and adding new electrical hookups, high-speed fuel pumps and a dock open to walkers.

Up the Root River, the former Pugh Marina at 1001 Michigan Boulevard changed hands in 2023. BizTimes reported that a father-and-son team paid more than $2.5 million for the 11-acre property, renamed it Rivers End Marina, and planned to reopen its two waterfront restaurants. The site had about 80 slips and two acres of vacant land.

The two lighthouses frame the harbor. The Racine Harbor Lighthouse and Life Saving Station, listed on the National Register in 1975, dates to 1866, with a life-saving station added in 1903. The North Breakwater Light was completed in 1901, deactivated in 1987, and saved from demolition after public outcry. South of the harbor, Pershing Park at 800 Pershing Park Drive adds lakefront trails, a soccer field and an 18,000-square-foot skate park, and Samuel Myers Park at 1 11th Street has a non-motorized launch for kayaks and paddleboards.

The shoreline rules are different inside a city. The Wisconsin DNR says county shoreland standards under NR 115 generally apply only to unincorporated land; in a city, you contact the city, and cities must still adopt shoreland-wetland zoning under NR 117. Work below the ordinary high water mark, such as a seawall or revetment, also needs state approval.

On a bluff lot, I'd ask the seller about any past shoreline protection or erosion work and its permits, order a survey that shows the bluff edge, and check the FEMA flood map for the parcel. The beach report card's dune losses since 2018 are a reminder that this shoreline moves.

Racine is the county seat of Racine County and its largest city. Wikipedia calls it Wisconsin's fifth-most populous city, with 77,816 people at the 2020 census, and the Wisconsin DOR's 2025 tax report estimates 77,775 as of 2025. The city is surrounded by the Villages of Wind Point and North Bay on the north shore, Caledonia to the north and west, and Mount Pleasant to the west and south. Those villages share the 534 ZIP codes and the Racine mailing address, which matters when you read listings.

The housing stock is old and mostly single-family. The 2020-2024 ACS counts 34,848 housing units, 31,970 of them occupied, and 19,236, about 60%, owner-occupied. About 65% of all units are single-family detached houses, 3,992 are in two-unit buildings and about 5,058 are in buildings of five or more units. The median year built is 1953. About a third of the homes, 11,698, were built in 1939 or earlier, while only about 1,082, roughly 3%, date from 2000 or later. Median gross rent was $1,033.

In practice, that means the city sells mostly older houses: cream brick and frame homes from the 1800s near the lake and downtown, bungalows and Cape Cods from the 1920s through 1950s, and postwar ranches farther west. New single-family construction inside the city limits is rare, which the 3% built since 2000 confirms.

The industrial history is still visible. Wikipedia lists Case IH, InSinkErator, Modine, Twin Disc and S. C. Johnson among the companies headquartered or long rooted in Racine, and notes that malted milk was first produced here by the Horlick company and the garbage disposer was invented here in 1927.

Racine sells mostly by area and by historic district rather than by subdivision name, and the city's own preservation page is the best map of its older neighborhoods.

On the north-side lakefront, Michigan Boulevard, Michigan Court and Lighthouse Drive hold the highest assessments in the city, covered above. Inland from them, between the zoo and downtown, the Northside Historic District of Cream Brick Workers' Cottages, listed in 1994, is a neighborhood of 1.5-story, front-gabled homes, mostly cream brick before 1900 and frame after, roughly bounded by Goold, Erie, English, Main, Yout and Chatham Streets, per the NRHP list. The Melvin Avenue Residential Historic District, listed in 2011, sits on Melvin Avenue between Erie and North Main Streets.

Downtown, the Old Main Street Historic District runs roughly from Second to Fifth Streets between Lake and Wisconsin Avenues, with the 1849 Durand and Hill Block and the 1857 McClurg Building. Most downtown housing is condos and apartments near the harbor, including the 333 Lake Avenue tower and Gaslight Pointe on the harbor. The Historic Sixth Street Business District, listed in 1988, runs west from the lake along the old main road into the city.

South of downtown is the Southside Historic District, the city's deepest stock of 19th-century homes, with College Avenue and Wisconsin Avenue running parallel to Main Street. Elsewhere, the city has surveyed Manree Park and the Carlisle Avenue area as potential historic areas, and the Orchard Street Historic District, listed in 2016, is a west-side neighborhood built from 1929 to 1958. The Racine Rubber Company Homes Historic District, listed in 2006, is 100 duplex homes built in 1919 and 1920 in 10 standard models.

The west side, around the Pritchard Park redevelopment of the former Regency Mall on Durand Avenue, is the quickest part of the city to I-94 and the Sturtevant Amtrak station, about 12 minutes away free-flow.

Boundaries below are approximate and come from the NRHP list and the city's surveys, so check each against the MLS subdivision field.

Racine is a lower-priced, fast-moving market with a very small luxury tier. Zillow's home value index put the typical Racine home at $222,732 in August 2026, up 5.9% from $210,254 a year earlier. The top-tier value, the typical value of the most expensive third of homes, was $281,208, up 4.5%.

ZIP codes need care here, because three of the five also cover neighboring villages. In August 2026, Zillow's typical value was $204,318 in 53404 and $221,275 in 53403, the ZIPs that take in downtown and the south side, and $240,765 in 53405 on the west side. In 53402, which runs from the north side of the city into Wind Point and Caledonia, it was $307,261, with a top tier of $452,731. In 53406, shared with Mount Pleasant, it was $335,081. The higher numbers in those two ZIPs reflect the villages as much as the city.

The neighbors show the spread. In the same file, Wind Point was at $442,834 with a top tier of $619,578, Caledonia at $390,636, Mount Pleasant at $350,292 and Kenosha at $284,850.

Demand is strong. Realtor.com's August 2026 hottest-markets list named Racine, which it measures at the metro level covering all of Racine County, among the 20 hottest housing markets in the country, alongside Kenosha at number two.

The Census median is lower than Zillow's. The 2020-2024 ACS puts the median owner-estimated value at $166,500, and the city's May 2026 revaluation roll puts the median residential-only parcel at $187,300. The ACS lags the market by several years, and the roll is an assessment, so I read all three together.

I'm not using MLS statistics on this page. Wisconsin sold data comes through a different MLS than the Illinois one I work in, so I stick to public sources.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the tax bill is the first thing people compare, and Racine's rate is well above the villages around it, though still below Vernon Hills. Wisconsin bills are built from a mill rate per $1,000 of assessed value.

The Wisconsin DOR's 2025 report puts the City of Racine's assessment level at 0.94, meaning assessed values averaged about 94% of market. The same report shows a full value of about $5.72 billion, or $4.98 billion excluding 19 tax increment districts, $135.0 million in total property tax and $8.06 million in state school levy credit. That works out to a gross rate of about $23.59 per $1,000 of market value and an effective rate of about $22.18 after the credit, or roughly $23.60 per $1,000 of assessed value by my arithmetic. For comparison, the same report puts Wind Point's effective rate at about $12.36, Caledonia's at $14.97, Mount Pleasant's at $15.66 and Racine County's overall at $15.46.

The city's own share is falling. Racine County Eye reported in October 2025 that the mayor's 2026 budget would cut the city portion from $12.10 to $11.75 per $1,000 of assessed value, the lowest in 15 years, down from $16.93 in 2017. The Racine Unified School District's 2025-26 mill rate is 7.94 per $1,000 of equalized value, and the district projected a rate of $8.07 for 2026-27, including the April 2025 referendum.

Here is a worked example, by my arithmetic, at the 2025 effective rate. A $250,000 Racine home carries about $5,545 before the lottery and gaming credit, and a $500,000 home about $11,090. A $1.5 million Michigan Boulevard house comes to about $33,270, against about $18,540 for the same value in Wind Point. At the 2.75% median effective rate Ownwell reports for Vernon Hills, those three homes would pay about $6,875, $13,750 and $41,250. The lottery credit for 2025-26 applies the school tax rate to the first $27,000 of value on a primary residence, and the DOR's statewide average credit is $190.

The 2026 bills will look different. The city's 2026 assessment roll lists "Revalue" as the reason for change on parcel after parcel, which resets assessments toward market. A revaluation does not raise the total levy by itself; the rate per $1,000 usually falls as values rise, and bills shift between properties depending on how each one's value moved against the city average.

When you sell, Wisconsin charges a real estate transfer fee of $3 per $1,000 of value, or $4,500 on a $1.5 million sale.

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

The whole city is in the Racine Unified School District, which also covers Mount Pleasant, Caledonia, Sturtevant, Wind Point, North Bay and Elmwood Park, per the DOR report. The City of Racine holds about 33% of the district's taxable value.

The money picture matters for taxes. Voters approved a referendum in April 2025, which Racine County Eye reported at $190 million, and the district's five-year forecast still projects a $51 million deficit by 2031, with enrollment expected to fall by 129 in 2026-27 and another referendum likely.

Attendance areas are set by Racine Unified, so confirm the assigned school for any address.

Racine has no train station of its own. The nearest rail is Amtrak at Sturtevant, a few miles west in the Village of Sturtevant off Highway 20, which opened in 2006 and handled 55,779 passengers in Amtrak's fiscal year 2025. It is unstaffed, with a ticket kiosk, 170 paid parking spaces and a bus connection from Ryde Racine.

The schedule, from Amtrak's published GTFS feed as of October 5, 2026, runs seven southbound trains to Chicago Union Station on weekdays: Hiawatha trains at 7:43 a.m., 9:28 a.m., 12:23 p.m., 2:28 p.m., 4:23 p.m. and 8:58 p.m., plus the Borealis at 7:08 p.m. Most take about 76 minutes in the early-October timetable, and the feed shows the same trains at about 66 to 74 minutes from early November. Northbound, Milwaukee is about 29 to 39 minutes away. Metra's nearest station is Kenosha, on the Union Pacific North line.

Rail could improve. Racine County Eye reported in December 2025 that the new MARK Passenger Rail Commission, chaired by Racine's mayor, replaced the old commuter rail plan with an intercity line from the Kenosha Metra station north through Racine to Milwaukee, and voted to apply for federal Corridor ID funding in 2026. That is early planning, with no service date.

By car, these are free-flow estimates from OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM), computed in October 2026. Real trips vary with traffic, weather and season.

From Monument Square downtown, Vernon Hills is about 48 miles and 66 minutes, Lake Forest about 44 miles and 61 minutes, and the Loop about 74 miles and 1 hour 39 minutes. O'Hare is about 71 miles, which the router put at about 1 hour 50 minutes. Milwaukee's downtown is about 30 miles and 47 minutes, Mitchell Airport about 21 miles and 37 minutes, the Sturtevant station about 7 miles and 17 minutes, the Kenosha Metra station about 11 miles and 23 minutes, and Lake Geneva about 46 miles and 71 minutes.

The north-side lakefront adds a few minutes south and saves a few north. From 3433 Michigan Boulevard, Vernon Hills is about 50 miles and 70 minutes, the Loop about 1 hour 42 minutes, and downtown Milwaukee about 23 miles and 44 minutes. From the Hardy House on Main Street, Vernon Hills is about 46 miles and 64 minutes. From the west side near the former Regency Mall, it drops to about 42 miles and 57 minutes, with Sturtevant 12 minutes away.

For an Illinois buyer, Racine sits inside a 90-minute drive of Vernon Hills from every part of the city, and downtown Milwaukee is closer than Vernon Hills from every one of those starting points.

The biggest open question on Racine's lakefront is a single cleared lot downtown. The city bought the long-vacant former YMCA building at 725 Lake Avenue in March 2024 for $12,500, according to state transfer records cited by BizTimes, and demolished it. In May 2026, the Common Council created a $30.8 million tax increment district for the site with no developer yet chosen, Racine County Eye reported, aiming for a multi-story, mainly residential building, with $21 million proposed for development incentives and $9 million for infrastructure. The Milwaukee Business Journal reported in August 2026 that the deadline for developer pitches was approaching. Whatever goes there will change the view and the street for the blocks around Lake Avenue.

Just north, Breakwater 233 opened on Lake Avenue. Racine County Eye reported in September 2025 that the five-story apartment building by Hovde Properties began leasing in September 2024, earned LEED Silver, and finished a public walkway and green space that connects Lake Avenue near Third Street down to Reefpoint Marina.

Downtown's anchor hotel opened in 2023. BizTimes reported that Hotel Verdant, an 80-room hotel in the former Zahn's department store at 500 Main Street on Monument Square, came from a $40 million adaptive reuse and includes a rooftop lounge with lake views.

On the west side, BizTimes listed Hull Property Group's $120 million redevelopment of the former Regency Mall, now Pritchard Park, among the region's major projects in June 2026, with a 240,000-square-foot Woodman's opened in May and a second phase of 266 apartments due later that summer.

New single-family homes are rare inside the city, so one proposal stands out. Racine County Eye reported in September 2026 that the city committed $4 million for roads, utilities and buyer assistance toward a 34-home subdivision by Neumann Companies on the 11.2-acre former Giese School site at 5120 Byrd Avenue, with a minimum home valuation of $350,000 and construction scheduled from July 2027 to July 2029. The school district still owned the land and had not agreed to sell.

The city's 2026 budget also funds replacing more than 11,000 lead water service lines over five years, per the Racine County Eye budget story. Racine's water comes from Lake Michigan.

Frank Lloyd Wright is the first reason many people visit. Wikipedia lists the S. C. Johnson Administration Building and Research Tower, the Hardy House, Wingspread in neighboring Wind Point and the Keland House among his Racine-area work. S. C. Johnson offers free tours of its campus, about 9,000 visitors a year per Wikipedia, and the Research Tower is one of only two Wright high-rises still standing. Fortaleza Hall, by Norman Foster, houses a Wright gallery and library.

Downtown is compact and walkable from the harbor. Monument Square is the center, with free summer concerts, per Wikipedia, and Hotel Verdant's rooftop overlooking it. The Racine Art Museum, in a building wrapped in translucent acrylic panels by Brininstool + Lynch, holds what Wikipedia calls the largest collection of contemporary craft in America, more than 4,000 pieces, and its Wustum Museum campus adds regional shows and classes. The Racine Theatre Guild runs a season of seven to eight main-stage productions.

The parks go beyond the lake. In June 2025, the National Register added the Root River Parks, Island, Riverside, Cedar Bend and Washington Parks, which began around 1905 and were designed by Jens Jensen in his Prairie landscape style, per the NRHP list. Along the lake, the zoo, North Beach, Pershing Park and Samuel Myers Park cover most summer days.

A few practical notes. The Racine Fire Department runs six stations, per Wikipedia, and Gateway Technical College has a downtown campus on the lake. Batten International Airport is a privately owned public-use airport, per Wikipedia, while airline service is at Mitchell in Milwaukee, about 37 minutes away, or O'Hare.

For sibling guides, see Wind Point, Kenosha, Somers and Oak Creek. Illinois readers comparing lakefronts may also want Lake Forest and Highland Park.

The Racine Police Department provides police service across the city, and the Racine Fire Department provides fire and ambulance service. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. Anyone who wants the data can contact the department or look it up in the FBI's Crime Data Explorer.

A Southside Historic District house on Main or College, a lake-view condo on Lake Avenue, or a bluff home on Michigan Boulevard all put the beach, the harbor and the Wright buildings within a few minutes, about 66 minutes from Vernon Hills.

The luxury tier is tiny: 20 homes assessed at $1 million or more, and the top single-family asking price on October 5, 2026 was $875,000. The tax rate is the highest of the lake communities around it, about $22.18 per $1,000 of market value against $12.36 in Wind Point, which adds roughly $15,000 a year on a $1.5 million house.