Saukville, WI

Saukville began as a crossroads. The village's history page explains that two early roads crossed the Milwaukee River here: the Dekora Road, now Highway 33, running west toward Portage, and the Green Bay road between Chicago and Green Bay. William Payne obtained the first recorded land sale in 1835 and built the Payne Hotel in 1847 at East Green Bay Avenue and Ulao Road; Wikipedia notes the building still stands and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Town of Saukville was organized in 1848, when it split from the Town of Port Washington. That same year a dam went across the Milwaukee River, followed by a sawmill and a grist mill. A rail line arrived in 1871, and for decades Saukville was a mill and market town for the dairy farms around it.

The village incorporated in 1915, Wikipedia records, on a vote of 66 to 40, with 376 people. Like its neighbors it grew quickly after World War II, from 699 people in 1950 to 3,494 in 1980, and I-43 opened through its east side in the mid-1960s. The 2020 census counted 4,258 people, and the Department of Revenue's 2025 estimate is 4,226.

Industry shaped the modern village. Wikipedia reports that as of 2019 more than 40% of the village's jobs were in manufacturing, and the village's 2025 economic profile lists Charter Steel, with 500 to 999 employees, as the largest employer in the Dekora Woods Business and Industrial Park.

The village is small. The Census 2024 gazetteer puts it at 3.54 square miles of land and 0.052 square miles of water. Wikipedia describes the borders: the Town of Saukville to the north and west, the Town of Port Washington to the east and southeast, and the Town of Grafton to the south and southwest. I-43 runs through the east side with exit 96 at Highway 33, and the Highway 57 junction is at the northeast edge.

The "Saukville, WI 53080" address covers much more than the village. On October 5, 2026, I ran listings from a public "Saukville, WI" search page through the Census geocoder. Houses on South Pheasant Place, Deer Pass Road and Hollybrook Lane came back in the village and the Port Washington-Saukville School District. Houses on County Road I and County Road O came back in the Town of Saukville and the Northern Ozaukee School District, including the highest-priced listing on the page, $2,750,000 for 120 acres. Going the other way, a house on Acacia Drive with a "Grafton 53024" address came back inside the Village of Saukville and the Grafton School District.

So the address alone will not tell you the municipality, the school district, or whether a parcel has village sewer and water.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the buyers I talk to assume the town in the address is the town on the tax bill. Around Saukville that is often wrong, so I'd check the tax bill's municipality and school district line first.

Its typical home value, about $410,000, sits roughly $100,000 below the county's.

The trade-offs are concrete. The tax rate is among the higher ones in the county, about 1.27% of price for a typical primary residence in the main district. Parts of downtown sit in the Milwaukee River floodplain. The village is not a luxury market; its top listing in October 2026 was $589,900. And Vernon Hills is more than 100 minutes away in free-flow traffic.

The address can mislead too. "Saukville 53080" includes town acreage in a different school district, and some village homes carry Grafton addresses. I'd pull the tax bill and confirm the municipality, school district and floodplain status for the exact parcel before falling for a property.

I break the village into four areas.

The first is downtown and the river: Green Bay Avenue, Main Street, Mill Street and the streets along the Milwaukee River, with Peninsula Park and Veterans Park, the Payne Hotel and the village's oldest houses. On October 5, 2026, older houses on South Mill and South Foster streets were pending at $199,900 and $269,900 and a three-bedroom on East Schowalter Street was listed at $254,900.

The second is the west and south subdivisions, built mostly from the 1970s through the 2000s. Listings on that date included a 2005 three-bedroom of 2,686 square feet on South Pheasant Place at $519,900, a pending house on Hollybrook Lane at $384,900 and a three-bedroom on Deer Pass Road at $339,900. The new Saukville Elementary School is being built on the village's west edge off Bucktrout Street, covered in the schools section.

The third is Northern Gateway on the east side, near I-43, a mixed-use development of nearly 100 acres. On October 5, 2026, new side-by-side homes on Stanton Way, built in 2026 with three bedrooms and about 1,545 to 1,672 square feet, were listed from $469,900 to $589,900.

The fourth is the business side: the I-43 and Highway 33 commercial area with Walmart, a YMCA and a grocery store, and the Dekora Woods Business and Industrial Park north of Highway 33. Condominiums on West Dekora Street were listed from $265,000 to $279,500, and a 3.68-acre parcel on West Dekora Street at $499,900.

Saukville's housing is a mix. The 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 2,050 housing units (plus or minus 195). Of those, 1,057, about 52%, are single-family detached, 294 are single-family attached, 191 are in two-unit buildings and 294 in buildings of five to nine units. Of the 2,012 occupied homes, 1,111, about 55%, are owner-occupied.

The 1970s built the village. The median home was built in 1977, and the survey counts about 594 homes from the 1970s, 401 from the 1990s, 300 from the 2000s and 133 from before 1940, with wide margins on each. The Northern Gateway homes going up now will add to the newest tier.

The ACS puts the median value of an owner-occupied home at $299,600, plus or minus $28,023, and its value table shows almost all owner homes between $200,000 and $499,999, with none recorded above $500,000. That survey trails the market; current listings already run past $500,000 for newer houses. Saukville is one of the lower-priced villages in Ozaukee County, and it is not a luxury market.

Each type has its own inspection list. A 1970s ranch is usually due for windows, a roof and mechanicals. A side-by-side home or condominium needs the association documents and reserve budget. Older downtown houses near the river need a floodplain check. The expectation I most often reset with Illinois buyers is the shared-wall format: Wisconsin "side-by-side" homes are two attached units, often each owned as a condominium, so the association rules matter as much as the house.

Zillow's typical home value for Saukville was $410,038 in August 2026, up 7.1% from $383,011 a year earlier and about 11.2% over two years. Ozaukee County as a whole was $507,273. Among nearby places, Port Washington was $392,624, Grafton $460,062, Fredonia $418,767 and Cedarburg $566,235. ZIP 53080, which also covers the Town of Saukville, was $397,952.

Redfin's monthly data counts 66 sales in Saukville in the 12 months through May 2026, up from 51 the year before. Monthly medians in that stretch ran from $347,500 to $555,950. In May 2026 the median was $470,000 on eight sales, with a median of 39 days on market and homes selling at about 102.3% of list. Inventory was nine homes, against eight a year earlier, so supply has not loosened even as sales rose by about 29%.

With two to ten sales a month, the Redfin median is noisy; one new Northern Gateway closing can move it by $100,000. The steadier signals are Zillow's 7.1% annual gain and sale-to-list near or above 100% in most recent months, which together say the middle of the market is firm and supply is thin.

At the top, Zillow's top-tier index for ZIP 53080 was $556,433 in August 2026, up 4.4% in a year. The highest-priced house listed inside the village on October 5, 2026 was $589,900. Saukville's $1 million and $2 million listings are acreage in the town, and for $2 million property in Ozaukee County, buyers look to the Lake Michigan bluffs in the Town of Grafton or to Mequon. If you're running numbers on a purchase, my guide to how much house you can afford in 2026 is a good place to start.

Wisconsin property tax vocabulary is different from Illinois. The assessor sets an assessed value, the Department of Revenue sets a full, or equalized, value, and the rate per $1,000 applies to the assessed value. In Saukville the gap between the two matters. The Ozaukee County Treasurer's 2025 table gives the village's assessment ratio as 0.806, so an assessed value is typically about 81% of market value, down from 0.900 in 2024 according to the village's 2025 economic profile. When market values rise faster than assessments, the rate per $1,000 rises.

The village is split among three school districts, each with its own 2025 rate. In the Port Washington-Saukville district, which covers most of the village, the gross rate is $18.13 per $1,000 of assessed value and the net rate after the state school levy credit is $16.57, with a lottery credit of $188.97 and a first dollar credit of $62.99. In the Northern Ozaukee district the net rate is $16.30, with credits of $183.28 and $61.09. In the Grafton district, on the south edge, it is $15.63, with credits of $168.55 and $56.18. The 2024 profile listed net rates of $15.21, $16.23 and $15.24 for the same districts. The DOR's effective rate for the village is 1.331% of full value, among the higher rates in the county.

A worked example. On a $410,000 house, Zillow's typical value, assessed at the 0.806 ratio, the assessed value would be about $330,500. In the Port Washington-Saukville district, the 2025 bill would be about $5,475 after the school levy credit, or about $5,223 after the lottery and first dollar credits for a primary residence, roughly 1.27% of price. The same house would be about $5,144 in the Northern Ozaukee district and about $4,940 in the Grafton district.

The village's own levy is about $7.08 per $1,000, the largest piece after the school levy. The DOR report lists three tax incremental districts, with full value of $785,302,700 including them and $703,754,100 without, so about 10.4% of value sits in TIF districts, largely the business park and Northern Gateway areas. The lottery credit is for a primary residence only, and Wisconsin's transfer fee is $0.30 per $100 of value, normally paid by the seller. This is general information, not tax advice.

The Milwaukee River runs north-south through the village, and it floods. When the Port Washington-Saukville School District sold the old Saukville Elementary School in 2026, it noted that the site at 333 North Mill Street is in a floodplain and includes wetlands, Ozaukee Press reported on March 25, 2026. Any downtown or riverside parcel should be checked against the FEMA flood map, since flood insurance can be a lender requirement.

The county is working on one of the worst spots. Ozaukee Press reported on April 29, 2026 that Ozaukee County is reconstructing Highway W north of Highway 33 along the river, raising the road, moving it slightly east and adding two culverts so the river can flow into its historic oxbow instead of over the road. The project creates the 67-acre Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve, including land donated by the village, with a kayak launch, about $4 million in state and federal grants committed, and completion expected in 2027. Officials said the road will still close in a 100-year storm.

Shoreland rules come from the village. Under Wis. Stat. 61.351, the village must zone unfilled wetlands of 5 acres or more in shorelands, and under Wis. Stat. 61.353, shorelands it annexed after May 7, 1982 need a setback of at least 50 feet from the ordinary high-water mark. Because the village keeps annexing town land, including the new school site, I'd ask the village which rules apply to any riverside parcel before planning work.

The village runs its own water utility and wastewater treatment plant, according to its utilities page, and its economic development page says public sewer and water are available through the village. That is the main service difference from the Town of Saukville, where homes use private wells and septic systems.

Fire and ambulance service come from the Ozaukee Central Fire Department, which the village's page says was established January 1, 2025 as a consolidated department for the Villages and Towns of Grafton and Saukville, with paramedic-level service. Its Saukville station is at 580 West Dekora Street, and its headquarters in Grafton.

The Oscar Grady Public Library serves the village as part of the regional library system. The village's parks page lists rentable pavilions at Grady, Quade and Schowalter parks and Veterans Park, and Wikipedia counts eight municipal parks with ballfields, courts, playgrounds and river access. A farmers market runs in Veterans Park on Sundays from June through October.

Most of the village is in the Port Washington-Saukville School District. The DOR's school apportionment puts $646 million of village value in that district, $43 million in the Grafton district and $15 million in Northern Ozaukee.

A new elementary school is coming. Ozaukee Press reported on October 15, 2025 that the village Plan Commission gave conceptual approval to a $45.8 million, 91,000-square-foot Saukville Elementary on 10 acres at 2803 Orchard Lane, and reported on December 3, 2025 that the village was annexing the site from the Town of Saukville. The school will face a 90-acre conservation area bought by the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District, with buses on Orchard Lane and parent traffic routed off nearby streets. The district expects it to open in September 2027.

The old school is being reused. In March 2026 the School Board voted 8 to 1 to sell the 333 North Mill Street building and its 10 acres for $1 to a Grafton company that proposes 16 condominiums with indoor parking for 34 vehicles, priced from about $175,000 to $495,000, pending village approval, Ozaukee Press reported. Assignment follows the parcel and the district sets the tax rate, so confirm both before counting on a school.

I ran free-flow routes on the OSRM routing engine, which uses OpenStreetMap roads and no traffic, from downtown Saukville on October 5, 2026. Treat these as best-case estimates.

From downtown Saukville, Port Washington is about 3 miles and 6 minutes, I-43 exit 92 in Grafton about 6 miles and 8 minutes, Cedarburg about 8 miles and 15 minutes, downtown Milwaukee about 26 miles and 35 minutes, and Milwaukee's airport about 32 miles and 45 minutes. Vernon Hills is about 86 road miles and 106 minutes, Lake Forest about 83 miles and 101 minutes, downtown Chicago about 113 miles and 141 minutes, and O'Hare about 109 miles, which the router put at 149 minutes.

I say this plainly: Saukville is past the 90-minute line from Lake County, Illinois.

Saukville has no passenger rail. Its local transit link is the Route 143 Ozaukee County Express, a weekday peak-hour bus to downtown Milwaukee, which Wikipedia says starts at its northern terminus in the Saukville Walmart lot near I-43 exit 96. Ozaukee County's Shared Ride Taxi covers other trips.

For Chicago, the train is Amtrak's Hiawatha from Milwaukee. In Amtrak's schedule data for Tuesday, October 13, 2026, I counted six Hiawatha departures from the Milwaukee Intermodal Station to Chicago Union Station, at 99 minutes except the first, at 112. The Intermodal Station is about 35 minutes from downtown Saukville in free-flow traffic.

The village's parks sit along the Milwaukee River. Wikipedia counts eight municipal parks with baseball and softball fields, basketball, tennis and volleyball courts, playgrounds, picnic shelters and river access for fishing and canoeing. Peninsula Park hosts the Saukville Area Historical Society's Crossroads Rendezvous, a fur-trade reenactment held on the third weekend in May, and Veterans Park the Sunday farmers market from June through October.

Natural areas ring the village. Kurtz Woods State Natural Area, a 45-acre old-growth beech-maple woods managed by the land trust now called Restoring Lands, is split between the village and the Town of Grafton. The Cedarburg Bog, a 2,200-acre state natural area and National Natural Landmark, is just west in the Town of Saukville, and Ozaukee County's Tendick Nature Park, Hawthorne Hills Park and golf course, and Ozaukee County Pioneer Village museum are a few minutes north and west. The Town of Saukville guide covers those.

The new Milwaukee River Oxbow Nature Preserve along Highway W, described in the river section, will add a kayak launch and trails when the county finishes it in 2027. Lake Michigan is close: Port Washington's harbor is about six minutes east, and Lion's Den Gorge in the Town of Grafton about 15 minutes south.

Saukville is a working village, and a buyer should know where the work happens. The village's economic development page describes two business areas, the Saukville Industrial Park and the Dekora Woods Business Park, along Highway 33 about a mile west of I-43, with zoning districts for business park, light and heavy industry. It notes that some parcels have on-site rail service, provided in the area by the Canadian National, and Wikipedia adds that the Wisconsin and Southern Railroad runs the line north of the village.

The village's 2025 economic profile lists the larger employers there: Charter Steel, a steel mill with 500 to 999 employees; Johnson Brass and Machine Foundry, with 100 to 249; Jeneil Biotech; Pope Scientific; American Orthodontics; and several machine and electrical shops. It counts 2,503 primary jobs in the village in 2023, with manufacturing the largest single category at about 20%, followed by education and health care and professional services.

The retail side is at I-43 and Highway 33. The same profile names a Walmart, a YMCA, a Piggly Wiggly supermarket and two car dealerships near the interchange, and Northern Gateway adds a sports academy and a medical clinic on the east side. For day-to-day errands, the village covers groceries and basics; larger shopping is in Grafton, about eight minutes south, and Port Washington, about six minutes east.

What it means for a buyer is mostly about location within the village. Houses on the north and west edges near Dekora Woods can be close to industrial buildings, truck routes on Highway 33 and the rail line, which can mean noise at times a showing on a weekend afternoon will not reveal. Houses south of Highway 33 and along the river sit farther from it. I'd drive past any house near the business park on a weekday morning, look at the village's zoning map for the parcels next door, and ask whether any industrial expansion is planned on adjoining land.

The industrial base also explains part of the tax picture. Business and industrial property helps carry the village levy, and the three TIF districts, about 10.4% of village value, are where the village has invested in that growth. While they are open, the new value goes to pay off the infrastructure that built it.

Because the village and the town share a name and a ZIP code, it helps to set them side by side with numbers.

Size and housing come first. The village is 3.54 square miles with 2,050 homes, about half of them single-family detached. The Town of Saukville is about 32 square miles of land, according to the Census gazetteer, with about 667 homes, nearly all single-family detached on acreage, and a 2025 population the DOR estimates at 1,807.

Taxes differ more than most buyers expect. In the Port Washington-Saukville district, the village's 2025 net rate is $16.57 per $1,000 of assessed value at an 81% assessment ratio; the town's is $11.91 at a 78% ratio, according to the county's 2025 table. The DOR's effective rate is 1.331% of full value in the village against 0.907% in the town. Most of that gap is the village's own levy, about $7.08 per $1,000, which pays for village police, sewer and water, parks and streets.

Services are the trade for that difference. The village has its own police department, public sewer and water and curbside village services. The town relies on the county sheriff, private wells and septic systems, and on its own zoning, which sets minimum lots of five to 35 acres in its agricultural districts.

Schools split differently too. Most of the village is in the Port Washington-Saukville district, while most of the town's value, about 88%, is in the Northern Ozaukee district based in Fredonia. A "Saukville" listing can therefore mean a village house in Port Washington-Saukville schools or a town farm in Northern Ozaukee schools.

Northern Gateway is the village's biggest project. BizTimes reported on March 9, 2026 that Three Leaf Partners was moving ahead with a second phase of apartments at the nearly 100-acre mixed-use development, which it is building with Port Washington-based Ansay Development. Ozaukee Press reported on May 6, 2026 that Ansay broke ground on April 23, 2026 for a new subdivision of 30 single-family houses and 10 side-by-side buildings, with houses of 1,000 to 2,000 square feet. The development already includes apartments, a sports academy and a medical clinic.

The west side is changing with the new school. The village annexed the 10-acre school site from the Town of Saukville, and the 90 acres around it went to the Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District for conservation, so that land should stay open. The old school on North Mill Street is slated to become 16 condominiums if the village approves the plans.

The larger regional question is power lines. The Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse campus being built in Port Washington needs new high-voltage transmission. In 2025 and early 2026, American Transmission Co.'s preferred route crossed the Town of Saukville, which opposed it. Ozaukee Press reported on September 16, 2026 that ATC filed a new application after the state Public Service Commission dismissed the first one, dropping the east-west route through the Towns of Trenton and Saukville and naming a south-east route as preferred. ATC estimates the system at $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion and expects about a year for approval and 17 months to build. A buyer on the village's edges should look at the route maps in that case before buying.

The Saukville Police Department provides police service in the village from 649 East Green Bay Avenue; its page lists a chief, a lieutenant, a sergeant and eight officers with 24-hour service, with after-hours calls routed through the Ozaukee County Joint Dispatch Center. The Ozaukee Central Fire Department provides fire and EMS. 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.