River Hills, WI

River Hills is named for the Milwaukee River, which runs through the western part of the village, and for its rolling ground. The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee dates the first land purchases to the 1840s, in what was then the Town of Milwaukee, and says the area stayed agricultural until the 1920s.

The change came with the Milwaukee Country Club. The club moved to the west bank of the Milwaukee River in 1911, as its old site in Shorewood was being built up, according to the same entry. Through the 1920s, country estates were built around it, most of them on parcels of at least 40 acres, and the club hosted fox hunts and polo matches into the 1960s.

The village incorporated in 1930. It started with under 2,700 acres and annexed more than 800 acres from the Town and City of Milwaukee between 1937 and 1974, per the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee.

A few odd chapters fill in the picture. The U.S. Defense Department ran a Nike missile site in the 2000 block of West Brown Deer Road from 1956 to 1971. University School of Milwaukee has been on its River Hills campus since 1961. And the estate of Harry and Peg Bradley, of the Allen-Bradley Company, became what is now the Lynden Sculpture Garden.

River Hills is the northern edge of Milwaukee County, about 10 miles north of downtown Milwaukee. The Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer puts its land area at 5.16 square miles, with another 0.18 square miles of water, nearly all of it the Milwaukee River. Mequon in Ozaukee County is to the north, Brown Deer to the west, Glendale to the south, and Fox Point and Bayside to the east across I-43. The Wisconsin DOR's 2025 report lists a population of 1,574.

One thing to clear up early. River Hills is counted as part of Milwaukee's North Shore, but it does not touch Lake Michigan. The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee says so directly. Its water is the Milwaukee River and two smaller streams, Indian Creek and the headwaters of Fish Creek.

The village is almost entirely houses. The zoning code's findings describe a community in which "substantially all of the land" is developed for private residences, with shopping and industry left to neighboring towns. The 2020-2024 Census ACS counts 605 housing units, 569 of them single-family detached, about 94%. Of the 555 occupied homes, 508 are owner-occupied. The few non-residential uses are the country club, the Lynden Sculpture Garden, University School of Milwaukee and the public Indian Hill School.

Mail is the other quirk. Many River Hills addresses carry a Milwaukee mailing address and the 53217 ZIP code, which River Hills shares with Fox Point, Bayside and Glendale. Lynden lists its address as Milwaukee, WI 53217 even though the garden sits inside the village. Always confirm the municipality on the tax bill, because that sets the tax rate, the zoning and the schools.

River Hills does not have neighborhoods in the usual sense. It has zoning tiers and landscapes, and the useful way to search it is by both. The tier tells you how big a lot must be and how far a house sits from its neighbors; the landscape tells you whether you get river frontage, ravines, open meadow or flat woods.

The river corridor is the top of the market. The Milwaukee River crosses the west side of the village from north to south, and the reported sales of $3.6 million and up in recent years have mostly been on or near it. The village has protected the river banks with a conservancy district for decades, which I cover in the river section. Around the Milwaukee Country Club sit the older estates, many from the 1920s and 1930s.

East of the river, the land flattens into wooded 5-acre parcels and, closer to the edges of the village, 2-acre and 1-acre lots. The Urban Milwaukee 2021 report on the village's planning fight said 83% of village land carries the 5-acre minimum and the rest is zoned for 1 or 2 acres. The smaller lots are where the entry-level River Hills houses sit, and they are the closest thing the village has to a conventional subdivision.

The newest piece is The Grove, a 51-home gated condominium neighborhood on part of the former Eder farm on West Brown Deer Road. It is the only product of its kind in the village, and I cover it in the development section.

The most-watched River Hills listing of recent years shows how this market prices. In May 2023, TMJ4 toured a 16,000-square-foot house on 16 acres on North Valley Hill Road, then listed at $4,950,000. The listing agent told the station it had been on the market about a year and a half and had just been cut by more than $1 million from a price of almost $6 million. In July 2024, BizTimes reported that a 16,000-square-foot home on Valley Hill Road, built in 1937 on a 16-acre lot, sold for $3.6 million, against a county assessed value of $3.3 million. The size, acreage and street match the TMJ4 listing. On those reports, the house closed about 27% below its reduced price and about 40% below where it started.

The river frontage sales since then have been stronger. In April 2026, BizTimes reported that a 21,000-square-foot contemporary ranch on 6.8 acres along the Milwaukee River, 32 years old, with six bedrooms, ten baths, a five-car garage, a pond and private river access, sold for nearly $3.75 million. That description lines up with a January 2023 sale BizTimes reported at $2.55 million: a 21,036-square-foot home built in 1994 on 6.8 acres with a pond, tennis court and pool. If it is the same property, it gained about $1.2 million in a little over three years.

Then in August 2026, BizTimes reported a $5 million sale of a 9,500-square-foot home built in 1992 on 4.3 acres along the Milwaukee River, with eight bedrooms, ten baths and an indoor sport court. It had been listed at $4.9 million, so it sold above its asking price. The other $5 million sale on record is from September 2022, when BizTimes reported that a home under construction on North Upper River Court, planned at 10,905 square feet on 4.4 acres, sold for $5 million.

Here is the honest price picture. Milwaukee River estates on 4 acres or more are a $3.5 million to $5 million market in the public record from 2022 through August 2026, and I did not find a reported River Hills sale above $5 million in that period. Large older estates away from the water, or ones that need work, can sell well below their first asking price, as Valley Hill Road did. Below that sits the much larger market of 5-acre and smaller lots, which Zillow's index (covered in the market section) puts near $1 million. I can't give you a sourced median for each tier from public data, and I won't guess one.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the comparison people reach for is Lake Forest or Mettawa: big wooded lots, older estates, a private club at the center. The difference is the drive and the tax bill, both covered below.

River Hills' zoning is the reason it looks the way it does. Section 7.0300 of the village zoning ordinance, as posted on the village website, sets three residential districts. R-1 requires lots of at least 5 acres, R-2 at least 2 acres and R-3 at least 1 acre. All three allow single-family homes and their accessory buildings. Two wetland districts overlay them. There is no commercial or multifamily district.

Setbacks depend on the district and on when the house was built. The village's setback sheet (June 2020) says that since May 1, 1995, new homes and new garages, sheds, pools, pool houses and caretaker homes must sit 100 feet from the street right-of-way line. Side and rear yards are 75 feet in the 5-acre district, 50 feet in the 2-acre district and 30 feet in the 1-acre district. Height is capped at 40 feet to the ridge line or top of the chimney. Homes built before May 1, 1995 follow the older rules when they add on: 100 feet from the street's center line, 20-foot side and rear yards and 35 feet to the top of the chimney.

What that means in practice is privacy. On a 5-acre River Hills lot, no new building can be closer than 75 feet to a side lot line, which leaves at least 150 feet of open land between two new houses on adjoining lots. Pools, pool houses and garages follow the same lines, so the back half of a lot often stays wooded by default.

Most exterior and interior projects also go through a building board. The village permits page (2025 rates) lists building, electrical, plumbing and HVAC permits under the building inspector, a Building Board checklist due by the first Monday of the month for a meeting on the third Monday, and a filling, excavating and erosion control permit for moving more than 20 cubic yards per acre, with a $100 fee, $60 a month and a $1,200 deposit. Tear-downs need a wrecking and razing permit. Budget the time as well as the fees, because a monthly board means a month can pass between submission and approval.

One caveat about the source. The zoning text I could read is the version the village posted in 2017, and the setback sheet is from 2020. Before you write an offer that depends on a lot split, an addition or a new pool, confirm the current ordinance and zoning map with village hall.

River Hills is small enough that monthly sale statistics swing on one house, so I lean on indexes and the census. Zillow's home value index put the typical River Hills home at $961,137 in August 2026, up 8.4% from $887,040 a year earlier. Zillow's top-tier index, which tracks the upper third of homes, was $1,499,207, up 3.7% over the same year. Those are estimates for all homes, sold or not, which is why they sit well below the estate sales above.

For context on the North Shore, the same Zillow data had the typical home in August 2026 at $552,985 in Fox Point, $569,124 in Bayside, $662,001 in Whitefish Bay, $353,494 in Glendale, $292,313 in Brown Deer and $659,897 in Mequon. River Hills is the highest by a wide margin, mostly because of lot size.

The 2020-2024 Census ACS puts the median value of owner-occupied homes at $699,600, with a margin of error of about $61,000. Of the 508 owner-occupied homes, 131 were valued at $1 million or more, about 26%, and 25 at $2 million or more, about 5%. Owners tend to underestimate in surveys like this, and the survey lags the market, so read it as a floor.

The housing stock is older than in most suburbs. The ACS counts 105 homes, about 17%, built in 1939 or earlier, and another 127 built in the 1950s, the biggest single decade. Only about 44 were built from 2000 on. It is a village of large, mostly four- and five-bedroom houses: 208 homes have four bedrooms and 188 have five or more. Expect updates, systems work and the occasional tear-down.

The state's numbers point the same way. The Wisconsin DOR's 2025 report puts River Hills' total full value, the state's estimate of market value for all taxable property, at $691,160,800. Divided by the ACS count of 605 housing units, that is about $1.14 million of taxable value per home, by my arithmetic, a rough figure because it includes land, the country club and a few other parcels.

I'm not using MLS statistics on this page. Wisconsin sold data comes through a different MLS than the Illinois one I work in, and village-wide medians for a place this size are noise. For a specific house, the comparable sales in the same zoning tier and on the same side of the river are the only numbers worth using.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the tax bill is the first thing people compare, and River Hills does not come out ahead. The DOR's 2025 report, for taxes levied in 2025 and collected in 2026, shows $15,757,145 in total property tax in the village. That is a gross rate of $22.80 per $1,000 of full value, and an effective rate of $20.64 after the state school levy credit.

The assessment level matters here more than in most places. The same report shows River Hills' local assessments at 78% of full value, so the assessed value on your bill runs well below the market. The rate printed on a River Hills bill is a rate on that assessed value, so it is higher than the full-value rate above, about $26.46 per $1,000 of assessed value on an effective basis, by my arithmetic. The bill comes out the same either way. Don't compare a River Hills mill rate to another town's without checking both assessment levels first.

The low ratio also tells you something about what is coming. The village did a full revaluation in 2023, per its property tax page. Wisconsin law expects each major class of property to be assessed within 10% of full value at least once in every four-year period, or the DOR steps in. With River Hills at 78% in 2025, I would expect assessments to be reset toward market in the next few years. That changes how the levy is split among owners more than the total, but an under-assessed house can see its share of the bill rise.

The school piece depends on the address. River Hills sits in two K-8 districts, both feeding Nicolet. By the DOR's figures, about 89% of the village's taxable value is in Maple Dale-Indian Hill and about 11% in Glendale-River Hills. The Department of Public Instruction's 2025-26 rates are 7.03 per $1,000 for Maple Dale-Indian Hill, 6.34 for Glendale-River Hills and 4.47 for Nicolet. In April 2026 Glendale-River Hills voters approved a $5 million a year operating referendum for four years, which WUWM reported would lift that district's rate to an estimated 6.75.

Here is a worked example. A $3,000,000 River Hills home at the 2025 effective rate of $20.64 per $1,000 of full value would carry about $61,900 a year. At Ownwell's median effective rate for Lake Forest, Illinois, 1.87%, the same value would carry about $56,100. Across the county line in Mequon, the DOR's 2025 effective rate was $10.95 per $1,000, about $32,900 on the same value. Nearby Fox Point was $20.29, Bayside $20.16, Glendale $20.15, Brown Deer $18.99 and Whitefish Bay $13.89. The Ozaukee County line is the biggest tax difference on the North Shore.

Two state credits come off the bill. The lottery and gaming credit applies only to a Wisconsin resident's primary residence. For 2025-26 it is figured on up to $27,000 of value, per the DOR's November 2025 notice, times the school tax rate, which is a few hundred dollars here by my arithmetic. The first dollar credit, figured on up to $9,000 of value, applies to every improved parcel. Both are small next to an estate bill.

When you sell, Wisconsin charges a real estate transfer fee of $0.30 per $100 of value, or $3 per $1,000. On a $3,000,000 sale that is $9,000; on the $5 million August 2026 sale it would be $15,000. River Hills bills are due in full by January 31, or in three installments through May 31, per the village.

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.

River Hills' water is a river, and that changes what a waterfront buyer is getting. Milwaukee River frontage here means wooded banks, ravines and views, and in places a short paddle, with the floodplain and bank-protection rules of a river. It does not mean a beach, a pier for a ski boat, or the open-water views of the Lake Michigan bluffs in Fox Point and Bayside.

The floodplain is mapped and regulated. Section 7.0306 of the village floodplain ordinance adopts the FEMA flood maps and divides the floodplain into floodway, flood fringe and general floodplain districts. In the floodway, almost nothing new can be built. In the flood fringe, new construction has to meet elevation standards, and the ordinance lets the zoning administrator deny any project that would raise the regional flood height by 0.01 foot or more. Several River Hills addresses on the river have had their floodplain boundaries amended by ordinance over the years, so the map for a given lot can differ from a generic FEMA viewer. The village's permits page links to FEMA's site for checking a property.

The banks themselves are protected. River Hills created a Primary Environmental Corridor Conservancy District more than 40 years ago to protect the banks of the Milwaukee River and Indian Creek, according to Urban Milwaukee (November 2019). That article described a 2015 clearing of about half an acre of riverbank vegetation to open a view, a DNR notice of violation, years of failed stabilization and lawsuits between neighbors and against the village. The lesson for a buyer is plain: clearing for a view along the river can bring village and state enforcement, and the cost of fixing an eroding bank lands on the owner.

Heavy rain is part of the picture. In the August 2025 storms, the National Weather Service recorded 11.4 inches of rain in River Hills, according to Milwaukee Magazine (August 2025). On any river or creek parcel, ask for the flood zone, any elevation certificate, the history of water in the basement, and whether the house has flood insurance and what it costs.

If your goal is the lake rather than the river, River Hills is a base, not a destination. Bayside's and Fox Point's lakefront is about 10 minutes east, and the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Bayside has public trails to the Lake Michigan shore.

Two private institutions shape the village's landscape. The first is the Milwaukee Country Club, which has been on the Milwaukee River since 1911. Its course is a 1929 design by C.H. Alison, restored by Renaissance Golf Design in 2020, according to The Fried Egg, which describes it as "often regarded as the top course in Wisconsin." The site notes that the course plays across two settings: rolling uplands above the river, and a set of holes in the valley that run along and across the water. The club is private, and membership is by the club's own process; buying a house next to it does not come with access.

The second is the Lynden Sculpture Garden at 2145 West Brown Deer Road, which is open to the public. It was the estate of Harry Lynde Bradley, who founded the Allen-Bradley Company with his brother in 1904, and his wife Peg, who began collecting monumental sculpture in 1962. Today it shows more than 50 large sculptures across 40 acres of park, lake and woodland, with works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Mark di Suvero and others. Admission is free and parking is free, with room for 50 cars, per the garden.

There is also a private tennis club, and University School of Milwaukee's campus on the north side of the village. Beyond that, the village's open space is private land. River Hills has no public park system of the kind Lake County, Illinois buyers might expect from a park district, so outdoor time happens on your own acreage, at Lynden, or at the county parks and nature centers in neighboring towns.

River Hills follows the North Shore model: small K-8 districts feeding one union high school. All of the village is in the Nicolet Union High School District, which the DOR's tax report shows also covers Bayside, Fox Point and Glendale. Below it, the village is split between two K-8 districts. Wikipedia lists only Maple Dale-Indian Hill, but the DOR's 2025 report shows about 89% of River Hills' value in Maple Dale-Indian Hill and about 11% in Glendale-River Hills. The village's own ward maps split one ward between the two districts. Check the district on the tax bill and confirm with the district office before you write an offer.

Its two schools are Indian Hill School, which serves 4-year-old kindergarten through third grade with enrollment of 223, and Maple Dale School, which serves grades 4 through 8 with enrollment of 224. Indian Hill School is inside River Hills.

In April 2026, 59% of voters approved the district's $5 million a year operating referendum, according to WUWM.

University School of Milwaukee, a private K-12 school, is on a 125-acre campus in the village, per Urban Milwaukee (September 2023).

For Illinois buyers, the closest comparison is a North Shore elementary district feeding a township high school, except that here the K-8 districts are much smaller, each with two schools.

Most River Hills homes run on private wells. The zoning code's findings state that the village has no public water system, and Urban Milwaukee reported in September 2023 that most River Hills homes will keep relying on their wells even after a new water line arrived. That line is a Mequon Water Utility main, supplied with Lake Michigan water from the North Shore Water Commission plant in Glendale, run west from I-43 to serve The Grove and University School of Milwaukee. The article said homes along its route can switch to municipal water if they want. So on any River Hills house, ask whether it is on a well or on the Mequon line, and get the water tested.

Sewer is different. The village runs a public sanitary sewer system, and its sewer lateral FAQ explains that the pipe from the house to the main belongs to the owner. The village has used Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District funds to inspect private laterals and pay for repairs of up to 50 feet of a defective one, to cut the rainwater that causes basement backups. The zoning code also refers to private sewer systems, so some properties may still have their own. Ask the seller which you have and when the lateral was last inspected.

For an older estate, I would add three checks that buyers from sewered, city-water suburbs rarely order: a well test and well-system inspection, a camera inspection of the sewer lateral, and a look at drainage and grading, given how much rain the area took in August 2025.

Services are shared with the rest of the North Shore. The village has its own police department, and the village's fire page says North Shore Fire/Rescue serves Bayside, Brown Deer, Fox Point, Glendale, River Hills, Shorewood and Whitefish Bay. Village hall is at 7650 North Pheasant Lane.

Very little land in River Hills is left to build on. Urban Milwaukee reported in July 2021 that from 2004 to 2017 only 23 new homes were built in the village, 11 of them on vacant lots, and that only 38 buildable parcels remained outside the former Eder farm, about 53 acres on West Brown Deer Road between Spruce Road and Range Line Road.

The newest homes are on part of that farm, in The Grove. Urban Milwaukee reported in September 2023 that the land was sold in July 2023 and that the plan called for 51 units on 25 acres, with the rest left as wetlands. The Business Journals reported in March 2024 that construction was underway on 51 homes. A September 2024 TMJ4 Morning Blend segment described it as a gated condominium neighborhood of detached ranch-style homes with a clubhouse, pool, pickleball and bocce courts, and lawn care and snow removal handled by the association.

For buyers, The Grove is the only new-construction option in River Hills built as a group: detached homes on a shared site rather than individual acreage. Everywhere else, building new means an existing buildable lot or a tear-down under the 5-, 2- or 1-acre district rules.

River Hills is a Milwaukee suburb first, and that is the commute it is built for. These are free-flow estimates from OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM), computed in October 2026 from the village hall area on North Pheasant Lane. Real trips vary with traffic and season.

Downtown Milwaukee is about 10 miles and 18 minutes away by I-43. Milwaukee Mitchell Airport is about 17 miles and 29 minutes. The Bayshore shopping district in Glendale is about 4 miles and 10 minutes, and central Mequon about 8 miles and 17 minutes.

From Lake County, Illinois, the drive to Vernon Hills is about 71 miles, roughly 1 hour 30 minutes, and to Lake Forest about 67 miles, roughly 1 hour 25 minutes. Downtown Chicago is about 97 miles, roughly 2 hours 5 minutes free-flow, and O'Hare about 93 miles, roughly 2 hours 15 minutes. The route is I-94 north through Kenosha and Racine to the Marquette Interchange area, then I-43 north to the Brown Deer Road or Good Hope Road exits.

For rail, Amtrak's Hiawatha runs between Milwaukee and Chicago Union Station. The Milwaukee Intermodal Station downtown is about 10 miles and 18 minutes from the village, and the Milwaukee Airport station about 17 miles and 30 minutes. Metra's closest station is Kenosha on the Union Pacific North line, about 48 miles and 1 hour 8 minutes away, which makes the Hiawatha the practical train.

For comparison, Lake Geneva is about 58 miles and 1 hour 22 minutes from River Hills, and Chenequa's Pine Lake about 30 miles and 54 minutes. If you are choosing a Wisconsin home you will reach from Illinois on a Friday afternoon, River Hills is closer to Vernon Hills than the Waukesha County lakes and about the same drive time as Geneva Lake.

River Hills has no stores, restaurants or gas stations of its own. The zoning code leaves those to neighboring communities, and the village is built around that choice. Daily errands mean a short drive.

The nearest shopping is Bayshore in Glendale, about 10 minutes away, which Milwaukee Magazine's 2026 North Shore guide (April 2026) calls the area's shopping destination. Silver Spring Drive in Whitefish Bay has local shops, and Mequon's town center is about 17 minutes north. For sibling guides, see Glendale, Brown Deer, Fox Point, Bayside, Whitefish Bay and, across the county line, Mequon.

For time outside, the same guide points to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center in Bayside, with 6 miles of trails across 185 acres down to the Lake Michigan shore, and the Lynden Sculpture Garden inside River Hills. Brown Deer Golf Course, a Milwaukee County course, is on Range Line Road just west of the village.

Houses are set far back from the road, the roads are two-lane and wooded, and Brown Deer Road is the main east-west route. Urban Milwaukee reported its daily traffic count at 23,000 in 2021, so a house fronting it trades differently from one on a dead-end lane.

River Hills has its own police department, based at village hall on North Pheasant Lane, per the village website, and North Shore Fire/Rescue provides fire and EMS. 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 Crime Data Explorer.

It is the closest estate market to the Illinois line on the Milwaukee side, about 90 minutes from Vernon Hills.

The 2025 effective rate of $20.64 per $1,000 of value is higher than Lake Forest's median and nearly double Mequon's, and with assessments at 78% of market, a revaluation could shift your share. Most homes use wells. Many of the estates are 50 to 90 years old and priced for the land as much as the house, so budget for systems and updates.