Sussex, WI

Sussex started as a blacksmith shop at a four-corners. The village's own history page, written by village historian Fred H. Keller, says Richard Cooling opened a blacksmith shop near the corners in June 1843. The corners were the intersection of Main Street and South Street, which is today's Maple Avenue.

The railroads made it two villages before they made it one. The village history says the Wisconsin Central came through in 1885 and 1886 about a mile east, and a second settlement grew there, first called Buck Town, then East Sussex, then Templeton after James Templeton, Cooling's son-in-law and postmaster. In 1890 the Milwaukee, Menomonee Falls and Western line, the "Bug Line," reached Maple Avenue. Its main customer was the Templeton Lime and Stone Company. The Bug Line's old right-of-way is now the Bugline Trail.

Quarrying and canning carried the early economy. The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee records the hops, limestone and canning trades, the Mammoth Spring Canning Company that ran from 1920 until it closed in 1996, and the Halquist Stone Company, founded in 1929, which it calls one of the village's biggest businesses. The local stone, often sold as Lannon stone, is still quarried in the surrounding Village of Lisbon.

Sussex and Templeton joined in 1924. The village's demographics page gives the incorporation date as September 12, 1924, with 387 residents. A 1922 school fire led to the fire company that became today's Sussex Fire Department. The village crossed 1,000 residents in 1960, 5,000 in 1990 and 10,000 in 2008 on the same table. The modern employer base arrived in the 1980s: the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee's Quad/Graphics entry says the printer built a plant in Sussex in 1982, and the Sussex entry says it moved its headquarters there in 1988. The village marked its centennial with a celebration weekend in August 2024.

Sussex is in north-central Waukesha County, about 19 miles northwest of Milwaukee and 9 miles north of the City of Waukesha, per the village's demographics page, which lists the village at 7.89 square miles and 12,823 residents in 2025. Highway 164 runs north and south along the west side, Highway 74 crosses east and west through the center as Main Street, and County Highway F, also called Redford Boulevard, links the south side to Interstate 94 near Pewaukee.

The village is surrounded almost entirely by the Village of Lisbon. That shapes a lot of local life. The two share the Pauline Haass Public Library, sports leagues and a sewer plant, and a 2022 boundary agreement moved land between them. If you are shopping a "Sussex" mailing address, check which village the parcel is in, because the ZIP code 53089 covers both and the tax bill, zoning and utilities differ.

The housing stock is mostly newer and mostly owner-occupied. The 2020-2024 Census ACS counts 4,820 housing units. Of the 4,749 occupied homes, 3,340, about 70%, are owner-occupied. About 62% of units are single-family detached houses, and the rest is a real mix of duplexes, townhouses and apartment buildings, including 292 units in buildings of 50 or more. The median home was built in 1994, and 948 units, about one in five, were built in 2010 or later.

Sussex has its own employment base. Quad, the printer, is headquartered here, and in January 2026 WPR reported that Generac bought a Quad facility in Sussex for $20 million and planned a plant with more than 100 manufacturing jobs.

Sussex reads in three bands. The old village sits along Main Street and Maple Avenue, with older houses on smaller lots close to the Civic Center, the library and Village Park. Around it is a ring of 1980s to 2000s subdivisions, including Prides Crossing, Coldwater Creek, Woodland Creek and Stonewood Estates, which carry park names on the village's parks list. The third band is the newest construction, mostly on the west and northwest sides near Highway 164.

The village's current subdivision page gives the clearest picture of lot sizes, and they vary more than buyers expect. Sussex Preserve, west of Maple Avenue next to the Civic Center, has 146 lots of 10,000 to 20,000 square feet. Johanssen Farms, east of Maple Avenue by Armory Park, has 73 lots of 12,000 to 20,000 square feet. Woodside Ridge, at Good Hope and Woodside Roads, averages about 27,100 square feet across 57 lots.

The west side is where most recent building happened. Vista Run is a 176-acre Neumann Development neighborhood with more than 200 single-family lots of 10,000 square feet and up, two-family ranch condominiums, townhouses, two clubhouses with pools, a 12-acre central park and 50 acres of natural area, per the same page. Redford Hills, south of Richmond Road and west of Highway 164, has 45 lots averaging about 24,000 square feet. Woodland Trails has 91 lots averaging 16,200 square feet and Woodland Preserve 17 lots averaging 31,000 square feet, south of Plainview Road. Golden Fields of Sussex added 26 lots in the northwest starting in early 2024.

The point for a buyer is that "Sussex new construction" can mean a quarter-acre lot near a clubhouse or a lot over two-thirds of an acre farther from the main roads.

Sussex is not a $2 million lake market, and I would rather say so up front. There is no lakefront in the village; the Census Gazetteer counts 0.04 square miles of water. The 2020-2024 ACS shows 90 owner-occupied homes, under 3%, valued at $750,000 or more, and 21 at $1 million or more. Zillow's top-tier index, which tracks the upper third of homes, was $659,670 in August 2026.

What is changing is the top of the new-construction market. In May 2026 the developer Spheeris Land Development announced preliminary plat approval for Oakridge Heights, 88 lots on 80 acres with municipal sewer and water, lots of 17,000 to 48,000 square feet, more than 21 acres of open space, and home values it estimated at $1.3 million to $1.7 million. That figure is the developer's estimate in its own press release, not a sale price, and I treat it that way.

The next large project is aimed lower. BizTimes reported in April 2026 that Neumann Development filed to rezone 147 acres northwest of Highway 164 and Richmond Road for 220 single-family homes, and a September 28, 2026 Milwaukee Business Journal headline described a timeline for a "$500K-plus" subdivision west of Highway 164. I could read only the headline, so I am not quoting lot counts or dates from it.

The honest price picture: most Sussex resales trade in the $400,000s to $600,000s, the newest west-side construction pushes higher, and a true $1 million-plus tier is only now being platted. For acreage or estate lots, the nearby markets are the surrounding Village of Lisbon, Hartland and the lakes around the Town of Merton.

Zillow's home value index, which estimates the value of a typical home whether it sold or not, puts Sussex at $518,858 for August 2026, up about 5.9% from $490,162 in August 2025 and up about 11% from $467,400 in August 2024. Zillow's top-tier index for the village was $659,670, up about 3.7% in a year. For the 53089 ZIP code, which also covers much of Lisbon, the typical value was $554,729 and the top tier $730,276.

Neighbors on the same index for August 2026 show where Sussex sits: Menomonee Falls $439,642, Lannon $519,926, Sussex $518,858, Lisbon $588,992 and Hartland $672,143. Sussex prices like its eastern neighbors, not like the lake villages to the west.

The 2020-2024 ACS median value of owner-occupied homes is $430,600, plus or minus about $20,000. That survey runs behind the market and uses owners' own estimates, so it sits below Zillow's current index. The value bands show the shape of the market: 1,014 owner homes valued at $300,000 to $399,999, 800 at $400,000 to $499,999 and 1,025 at $500,000 to $749,999. The median gross rent was $1,369.

Two things move Sussex prices more than the averages suggest. The first is age: a 2015 or newer house on the west side and a 1970s ranch near Main Street are different products at different prices. The second is lot size, which ranges from 10,000 square feet to more than an acre in the newer plats. For a specific house, the comparable sales in the same subdivision are the only numbers worth using.

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 this page relies on public indexes.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, the tax bill is the first thing people compare. Wisconsin bills are built from a mill rate, the dollars of tax per $1,000 of assessed value, and Sussex makes that simple because it reassesses every year. The village assessor page says Sussex adopted a full value maintenance program in 2008 to keep assessments at 100% of market value, revalues the whole village every year and inspects about 25% of properties each year. The DOR's 2025 report puts the village's assessment level at 95%.

The Waukesha County 2025 tax rate sheet, dated December 11, 2025, gives the Hamilton School District part of Sussex a gross rate of $13.33 per $1,000 of assessed value: Hamilton schools $7.05, the village $4.68, Waukesha County $1.34 and the technical college $0.26. After the state school levy credit of $1.32, the net rate is $12.01 per $1,000 assessed, which the county converts to $11.38 per $1,000 of market value. A small part of Sussex in the Richmond and Arrowhead school districts has a net rate of $10.55 assessed, or $9.99 per $1,000 of market value. The DOR report's village-wide effective rate is $11.31 per $1,000.

Here is a worked example. A $520,000 home on the Hamilton side at $11.38 per $1,000 of market value would carry about $5,920 a year before credits. A $1,500,000 new build in a subdivision like Oakridge Heights would carry about $17,070. The same county sheet lists a maximum lottery and gaming credit of $180.41 and a maximum first dollar credit of $60.14 for the Hamilton district. The lottery credit applies only to a Wisconsin primary residence.

For comparison, Ownwell's data for Vernon Hills, Illinois shows a median effective rate of 2.75%, which on $520,000 would be about $14,300.

The trend has been down on a per-$1,000 basis, because values rose faster than levies. The village's tax page lists the village's own rate at $5.59 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2020 and $4.79 in 2024, and the Hamilton school rate at $8.91 in 2020 and $7.25 in 2024. A falling rate does not mean a falling bill, since assessments rise each year, but it does mean the bill has tracked home values rather than outrunning them.

Bills are mailed by Waukesha County, and the village's tax page says they can be paid in full by January 31 or in three installments due January 31, March 31 and May 31. When you sell, Wisconsin charges a real estate transfer fee of $0.30 per $100 of value, or about $1,560 on a $520,000 sale.

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

Nearly all of Sussex is in the Hamilton School District, a 4K-12 district. The DOR's 2025 apportionment puts about $2.35 billion of Sussex's taxable value in Hamilton and about $62 million, roughly 2.6%, in the Richmond School District and Arrowhead Union High School District. If a house is near the village's western edge, check which district it is in before you rely on anything below.

One detail is easy to miss. Hamilton High School carries a Sussex mailing address, but the Census geocoder places its campus in the Village of Lisbon. The district serves both villages along with Lannon, Butler and part of Menomonee Falls.

Which elementary school a house feeds depends on the street. Confirm assignment with the district for each address before you write an offer.

Village Park is the center of Sussex's outdoor life, and it is in the middle of a rebuild. The village's construction page says 2025 and 2026 brought a new park maintenance facility, a rebuilt Weaver Drive from The Grove splash pad to the south end of the park, and the Judy Neu Pond, a 1.34-acre stormwater pond that was stocked with bluegill and largemouth bass in June 2026 for catch-and-release fishing.

The biggest new piece is The Ridge. The Village Park Master Plan page says it opened July 1, 2026, with about 2,000 square feet of indoor rental space, a concession area, more than 8,500 square feet of outdoor event space and a covered stage built into the park's natural ridgeline.

Next comes a ballpark complex. In May 2026 the Waukesha Freeman reported that the Village Board approved The Fields at Village Park, an $8.98 million complex with five diamonds, including a stadium field with a 375-foot center field and about 300 bleacher seats. The village bought about 17 acres south of Main Street and east of Pewaukee Road for it in October 2025. Officials estimated the cost to the owner of an average $420,000 home at about $20.08 a year starting in 2027. The village plans to bid it in early 2027 and have it ready for play by late 2028, the park's 70th anniversary year.

Beyond Village Park, the village's parks list covers 22 facilities, including Armory, Coldwater Creek, Grogan, Madeline, Mapleway, Melinda Weaver, Old Brooke, Prides Crossing, Ridgeview, Spring Green, Stonewood Estates and Vista Run parks. The trails page describes the 16-mile Bugline Trail from Menomonee Falls to North Lake, the Corky Curtis Trail looping the old Mammoth Spring Quarry, and the Dennis Wolf Trail, started in 2023, linking Highway 164 to Vista Run Park and Mary Hill Road.

Sussex is a Milwaukee-area village. These are free-flow estimates from OpenStreetMap routing (OSRM), computed in October 2026 from the Sussex Civic Center. Real trips vary with traffic and season.

From Vernon Hills, Illinois, it is about 80 miles and roughly 1 hour 45 minutes. From Lake Forest it is about 77 miles and roughly 1 hour 40 minutes. Downtown Chicago is about 106 miles and roughly 2 hours 15 minutes, and O'Hare about 103 miles and roughly 2 hours 25 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 23 miles and roughly 35 minutes, and Milwaukee Mitchell Airport about 28 miles and roughly 45 minutes. Madison is about 68 miles and roughly 1 hour 25 minutes.

Locally, Menomonee Falls is about 15 minutes away, the Village of Pewaukee about 14, Hartland and the City of Waukesha about 18 each, and Brookfield Square about 21. From Lake County, the usual route is I-94 north to Milwaukee, then west on I-94 to County F or Highway 164 and north into the village.

The County F interchange at I-94 is due for a rebuild. In January 2026 the Waukesha Freeman reported that WisDOT plans to convert it to a diverging diamond interchange starting in 2028, and that County F carries up to 40,000 vehicles a day. Expect detours there for at least one construction season.

There is no Metra option worth using; the Kenosha terminal is about 80 minutes away by car. The rail link to Chicago is Amtrak's Hiawatha. Amtrak's October 2026 schedule data shows six weekday trains each way between Milwaukee and Chicago Union Station, about 1 hour 40 minutes end to end, with stops at Milwaukee Airport, Sturtevant and Glenview. The Milwaukee Intermodal Station is about 32 minutes from the Civic Center, and the Glenview stop is the closest one to Lake County.

Sussex has the everyday basics inside the village. Main Street has the Civic Center, the Pauline Haass Public Library at N64W23820 Main Street, and local shops and restaurants, and Highway 164 on the west side carries the larger grocery and big-box stores. Bigger shopping trips go to Menomonee Falls, Pewaukee or Brookfield, each about 15 to 21 minutes away by the routing above.

The village runs a busy recreation calendar out of the Civic Center. The October 2026 News & Notes lists an electronics recycling drop-off on October 17, hydrant flushing in the second half of October, the Spooky Sussex Halloween event in Village Park on October 23. In summer, the Classic Car Cruise Night, which TMJ4 described in June 2026 as a Sussex tradition of more than 20 years, ends with a car show at the Civic Center, and Lions Daze fills Village Park in late July.

Village services are full suburban scale. The village collects garbage, recycling, brush, leaves and bulk items, runs a yard waste site, and bills water, sewer and stormwater monthly. The Civic Center also houses fitness classes and room rentals, and the new Ridge pavilion at Village Park adds a second rental venue.

Most of Sussex is on municipal water and sewer, which is a real difference from the well-and-septic acreage around it. The Sussex Water Utility page says the utility serves more than 4,000 customers from four deep wells and one shallow well, with more than 70 miles of mains. All of it is groundwater, and the village lists hardness at 300 mg/L, or 17.5 grains per gallon, so plan on a water softener. The village offers a $200 rebate for replacing a timer-based softener with an on-demand model, per its sewer utility page.

The same page says the village's wastewater plant has a capacity of 5.1 million gallons a day and serves Sussex, Lannon, parts of Lisbon, Richmond School and part of Menomonee Falls. If you are looking at a Sussex-address house that turns out to be in Lisbon, ask whether it is on this sewer system or on a private septic system.

Fire and EMS come from the Sussex Fire Department, which traces its history to 1922 and describes itself as moving from a volunteer to a combination department with full-time and part-time paramedics. Police service is contracted: Waukesha County Sheriff's Department deputies provide 24-hour coverage from the Public Safety Building at N63W24335 Main Street.

Storms are the main natural hazard I would ask about. On April 14, 2026, an EF2 tornado with maximum winds of 120 mph and a 3.2-mile path hit Lisbon and Sussex, according to the Waukesha Freeman. On any 2026 purchase, ask for the roof age and any storm claim history.

The single most common mix-up I expect Illinois buyers to make here is treating Sussex and Lisbon as one place. They share the 53089 ZIP code, a library, a sewer plant and sports leagues, but they are separate villages with separate tax rates, zoning codes and utility setups. Lisbon wraps all the way around Sussex, so a house a few hundred feet from the Sussex line can be in either one.

The line moved recently. The 2022 Incorporation Review Board determination on Lisbon's village petition says a 2022 cooperative boundary agreement transferred 66 parcels and 550 acres from Lisbon to Sussex, moved road segments and a quarry the other way, and cleaned up many of the jagged islands decades of annexations had created. The same document says the Lannon Stone company agreed to put more than $13 million toward extending Sussex's water system as part of that agreement. The Encyclopedia of Milwaukee notes that the two communities fund and run the Pauline Haass Public Library together.

In practice, the difference shows up in three places. Sussex parcels are mostly on village sewer and water, while most Lisbon homes use private wells and septic. Sussex lots are suburban, while Lisbon's zoning favors lots measured in acres. And the 2025 tax rates differ: about $11.38 per $1,000 of market value on the Hamilton side of Sussex against about $9.52 on the Hamilton side of Lisbon, per the county's 2025 rate sheet. Check the municipality on the county parcel map before you compare any two houses.

Sussex is still growing, and the projects in the pipeline will change the west and south sides most. The largest residential plan on record is the 220-home Neumann subdivision on 147 acres northwest of Highway 164 and Richmond Road, filed for rezoning in April 2026 per BizTimes. Oakridge Heights, 88 higher-end lots, received preliminary plat approval in May 2026.

South of Main Street, the Waukesha Freeman reported in October 2025 that the Village Board would consider Wildflower, a 128-acre neighborhood between Highway 164 and Pewaukee Road. The plan as reported includes 55 acres of single-family homes, 100 attached homes and townhomes in two groups, 11 acres of commercial land near Highway 164, more than 18 acres of open space along Sussex Creek, and 18.44 acres to expand Firemen's Park, with a new traffic signal at Highway 74 and Pewaukee Road. I have not confirmed the final approval, so treat those numbers as the proposal.

On the jobs side, Generac's purchase of a former Quad building for $20 million, reported by WPR in January 2026, brings more than 100 manufacturing jobs. Public projects include The Fields at Village Park and the County F diverging diamond interchange at I-94, starting in 2028.

For a buyer, the practical question is what will be built next to a given lot. Before you buy near Highway 164, Richmond Road or Pewaukee Road, look at the village's land use map and any pending plats.

Sussex does not have its own police department. The Waukesha County Sheriff's Department provides police service to the village under contract. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. Anyone who wants the data can contact the Sheriff's Department or look it up in the FBI's Crime Data Explorer.

At about $518,900 for a typical home in August 2026 and a tax rate near $11.38 per $1,000 of market value, the monthly cost is easy to model, and the annual reassessment means the bill tracks the market instead of jumping after a revaluation.

Sussex has no lake frontage, few homes valued above $1 million, and lots that top out around an acre in the newest plats. It is also close to two hours from Vernon Hills. And the west side will see construction for years.