Union Grove, WI

Union Grove started as one house. The village's history page says John E. Dunham built the first house in 1838 on what is now Main Street. The name came from Governor Henry Dodge, who combined "Union School," the local school's name, with the grove of bur oaks around it.

The railroad set the village's shape. Agents for the Racine, Janesville and Mississippi Railroad began buying right-of-way north of Dunham's land in 1854, and the Union Grove Company was incorporated by an act of the Legislature on March 18, 1856, with $50,000 in authorized capital. The same page notes that the railroad was removed in 2014. That old line now matters again, because the village plans to run the White River State Trail along it through downtown.

Main Street was rebuilt twice. The town history records a 1904 fire that destroyed the Commercial Hotel, the Myers Opera House and a saloon, and a 1916 fire that took eleven businesses on the west side of the street. The first brick school went up in 1882, and Graham Public Library was dedicated in 1959.

Neighboring Yorkville's history page says Union Grove incorporated as a village in 1893, inside what was then the Town of Yorkville. That history still shows on the map. Union Grove sits in the southwest corner of Yorkville, and the two share almost every border, a fire department and a village board room.

Union Grove is a village, which in Wisconsin means an incorporated municipality with its own board, its own utilities and its own line on the tax bill. The Census Bureau's 2024 gazetteer gives it 2.59 square miles of land and no water. The Department of Revenue's 2025 Town, Village and City Taxes report counts 5,402 residents as of January 1, 2025, and a full value of $690,070,100.

Village offices are at the Union Grove Municipal Center, 925 15th Avenue, per the village's About page, which places the village at the intersection of U.S. Highway 45 and Wisconsin Highway 11, about five miles west of I-94. The Village of Yorkville's office is in the same building.

The single most useful fact for a buyer is that "Union Grove, WI 53182" is a mailing address, not a municipality. The 53182 ZIP covers the village, most of Yorkville, and parts of Dover, Raymond, Paris and Brighton. I ran listings through the Census Bureau's geocoder on October 5, 2026. The Racine County Fairgrounds at 19805 Durand Avenue, which uses a Union Grove address, is actually in the Village of Yorkville. A $1,750,000 house listed with a Union Grove address on 18th Street is in the Town of Brighton, across the line in Kenosha County, with Brighton schools and Kenosha County taxes.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, where a Libertyville address usually means Libertyville, this is the expectation I would reset first. The tax bill and the parcel record name the municipality and the school district. The envelope does not.

Downtown Union Grove is Main Street, which is also Highway 45, between 7th Avenue and 15th Avenue. The village's Downtown Redevelopment Plan 2026 Update, a January 2026 draft for public hearing, draws its boundary around the properties fronting Main Street in that stretch plus the Municipal Center, about 38.7 acres. It updates a 2005 and 2006 plan.

The plan names specific sites. It proposes acquiring and redeveloping the post office property at 830 Main Street for up to 10,000 square feet of commercial space and up to 24 residential units in a building of 1.5 to 4 stories, with the Postal Service able to stay as a tenant. It lists 1020 to 1030 Main Street for demolition and rebuilding, 919 Main Street, a vacant two-story building, for restoration as mixed use, facade and streetscape work on the west side of the 800 and 900 blocks, a gateway at the northwest corner of Main Street and Durand Avenue, and the old fire station, which the department is leaving.

The plan values the redevelopment area at $31,207,500 in 2025 equalized value and puts its potential at $61,540,698. It describes acquisitions spread over 15 years and paid for with tax increment financing.

Two other downtown changes are already moving. The village's 2026 budget records the approval of a new bookstore at 1106 Main Street in 2025. And the plan shows the White River State Trail running east and west through downtown on the vacated railroad, with a new trailhead.

If you are looking at a house within a block of Main Street, I would read the plan's site list before writing an offer. A vacant lot next door can turn into a three- or four-story mixed-use building under this plan.

Union Grove has more variety than a typical farm-country village. The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 2,176 housing units. About 57% (1,242) are detached single-family houses. The rest are duplexes (about 180), small buildings of three or four units (about 180), and apartment buildings of 5 to 49 units (about 493). Margins of error are wide in a village this size.

Tenure follows that mix. Of 2,129 occupied homes, the survey counts 1,042 owner-occupied and 1,087 renter-occupied, close to an even split. Most of the rental stock is in the multi-unit buildings, including the apartment buildings at Dunham Grove and The Granary that I describe in the next section.

The housing is younger than the county's. The survey's median year built is 1982, against 1968 for Racine County. About 169 units predate 1940, mostly in the blocks around Main Street. The 1970s and 1980s added about 700 units. Since 2000 the village has added about 534, roughly a quarter of the stock, and 144 of those were built in 2020 or later.

The survey's median owner-estimated value is $277,400, against $251,400 for Racine County, with a margin of about $70,000 that makes it a rough guide. Its value table shows only about 50 owner-occupied homes valued at $500,000 or more, which matches what the listings show: the village's top end is new construction and a few larger homes on the east side.

The Department of Revenue's 2025 equalized values show a mixed tax base. Residential property is $503.8 million, about 73% of the village's $690.1 million total. Commercial property is $162.3 million, about 24%, and manufacturing $22.6 million.

Union Grove is small enough that its neighborhoods are really development eras, and the village's development projects page maps the newest ones by tax increment district.

The original village is the grid on both sides of Main Street, roughly 7th to 17th Avenues, with the older homes, Bufton Park, Leider Park and the library. The 1970s and 1980s subdivisions fill in east toward Colony Avenue and along the north and south ends. On the east side, Lincolnwood Drive, near the Lincoln Woods nature walk, held the village's top listing on Movoto on October 5, 2026: a 4-bedroom, 2,757-square-foot house at $1,300,000, which the Census geocoder places inside the village.

Canopy Hill is the big one. The village describes it as a 160-acre mixed housing development at Colony Avenue and 58th Road with 188 single-family lots, 60 duplex units, 8 ranch condominiums and 60 multi-family units, valued at $112.8 million, built in phases over about eight years starting in summer 2021 under TIDs 4 and 7. Racine County Eye reported in September 2023 that Phase 2B, about 38.89 acres, added 44 single-family lots on Kiddle Lane, Hill Drive and Valley Hill Lane, zoned RS-80 with a planned unit development overlay. The village's 2026 budget adds that Phase 2C platted 43 more lots in 2025 and that Phase 3 brings another 43 lots and three roads.

The builder, Bear Homes, markets "The Estates of Canopy Hill" on 58th Road across from the high school, with lots from $120,000 and homes from $615,000 as of October 5, 2026. Movoto listed new Canopy Hill homes on York Street at $736,900 and $859,900 and on Valley Hill at $687,900 the same day.

Dunham Grove, on 69th Drive east of Shuman Drive, is a 45-acre development by Pre/3 planned for 63 single-family homes and 120 apartments in ten 12-unit buildings, per the village's January 2020 summary. The 2026 budget calls TID 6 there fully built out. The Granary, at State Street and Mill Avenue on a former grain mill site, is a 73-unit development of townhouse-style apartment buildings plus a commercial building on Main Street, under TID 5.

Zillow's home value index, which tracks a typical mid-tier home, put Union Grove at $341,532 in August 2026, up 5.9% from $322,399 in August 2025 and 9.1% from $312,974 in August 2024. In the same month Racine County was $318,751, Sturtevant $290,940, the Town of Dover $503,026 and the Village of Yorkville $542,069.

Redfin's market page shows a similar level from actual sales. The median sale price was $331,571 for the three months ending August 2026, up 3.9% from a year earlier, at a median $210 per square foot. Twenty-nine homes sold in August, against 27 a year before, and the median time on market rose from 53 to 61 days. Redfin rated the market "somewhat competitive."

Listings run higher than sales because new construction is a large share of what is for sale. Movoto showed 93 listings and a median list price of $592,000 for the Union Grove area on October 5, 2026, but that search covers the whole 53182 ZIP, so it mixes in Yorkville, Dover and Brighton homes on acreage. Inside the village the same day, existing homes on Oakhurst Avenue and 9th Avenue were listed at $374,900 and $269,900, new Canopy Hill homes at $687,900 to $859,900, and the Lincolnwood Drive house at $1,300,000.

Union Grove is not a $2 million market. There is no lakefront, and I found no village home listed above $1.3 million. In the village, I would price a home on its street, its age and its distance from Main Street, and compare new construction against resales separately.

Union Grove has one tax rate for nearly every parcel. Racine County's 2025 mill rate sheet lists $14.008325 per $1,000 of assessed value for the village, with Union Grove Elementary and Union Grove High School. That rate is net of the state school levy credit and before the lottery and gaming credit and the first dollar credit.

Assessments in Union Grove sit close to market value. The Department of Revenue's 2025 report puts the village's assessment level at 0.98 and its effective full-value tax rate at 1.369%, after state credits. For comparison, the same report gives 1.256% for the Village of Yorkville, 1.563% for Sturtevant, 0.977% for the Town of Dover and 2.218% for the City of Racine.

A worked example at Zillow's typical August 2026 value of $341,532. At a 0.98 ratio the assessment would be about $334,700. At $14.008325 per $1,000, the 2025 bill would be about $4,689 before the two credits. A new Canopy Hill home at $615,000 would assess near $602,700 and carry about $8,443 before credits.

The credits are modest. The DOR's November 2025 report says the lottery and gaming credit, for a primary residence only, is calculated on the first $27,000 of value and averaged $190 statewide for 2025-26. The first dollar credit applies to any parcel with a building.

The village's own share fell this year. The 2026 budget raised the village levy 10.3% to $2,371,053 but cut the village rate from about $5.61 to $4.57 per $1,000, because equalized value grew faster. Much of that growth sits in the four tax increment districts. The DOR report shows $690.1 million of full value but only $531.0 million outside TIF districts, so about $159 million of value pays toward the TIDs rather than the general levy until they close.

Wisconsin's real estate transfer fee is $0.30 per $100 of value. This is general information, not tax advice; your bill depends on the parcel, your credits and the assessor.

Union Grove is on public water and sewer, which separates it from most of the farmland around it. The village's utilities page says water, sewer and storm water are village-owned, self-financing utilities regulated by the Public Service Commission, the EPA and the DNR. Rates are printed on the bill rather than posted online, and bills go out quarterly, around January 10, April 10, July 10 and October 10.

Lead pipes are not a known issue. The same page says the village has identified no lead service lines so far, with records on 81.7% of service connections as of a March 19, 2025 notice. The 2026 budget funds a $750,000 rehabilitation of the Well #3 water tower, awarded to L.C. United Painting Co., per the village's June 2026 e-news.

Trash is paid for in the property tax. The village's resident guidebook says Waste Management collects garbage weekly, recycling every other week and yard waste weekly from April 1 to November 30, with no separate charge. Village Public Works picks up brush and leaves.

Internet choices are better than in the surrounding farmland. BroadbandNow's Union Grove page, dated October 2026, lists AT&T fiber and internet at about 80% availability and Spectrum cable at about 63%, plus 5G home internet from Verizon and T-Mobile and fixed wireless. Coverage varies by street, so I would check the exact address with each provider before closing.

One open item for buyers is drainage. The village's September 2026 e-news says it is challenging a $2.34 million Racine County drainage district assessment. I would ask the village whether any special assessment is pending against the parcel before closing.

Union Grove is served by two districts that work as a pair. Union Grove J1 runs Union Grove Elementary-Middle School, kindergarten through 8th grade, at 1745 Mildrum Street, and the Union Grove Union High School district runs Union Grove High School at 3433 South Colony Avenue, per the village's schools page.

The high school district is much larger than the village. The DOR's 2025 apportionment puts about 21% of the high school district's taxable value in the village, about 38% in the Village of Yorkville and about 8% in the Town of Dover, with the rest in Raymond and the other towns in the district. The elementary district is mostly the village: about 79% of its value is in Union Grove and about 18% in Yorkville.

The high school just finished a building program. Voters approved about $35 million in November 2024, and TMJ4 reported that the work included secure entrances, a $5.1 million technical education wing, four new science classrooms, engineering and robotics space, and a new parking lot. That borrowing is part of the high school line on every bill in the district.

Assignment follows the parcel. A Union Grove address in Yorkville can be in the Yorkville J2 elementary district instead, and one in Dover can be in Dover #1. Confirm the district for a specific property on the tax bill.

Union Grove sits on two state highways. Highway 45 runs north and south through downtown, and Highway 11, Durand Avenue, runs east to I-94 and west to Burlington. The Racine County Fair's directions page routes visitors from I-94 exit 333 at Highway 20.

I ran free-flow routes on the OSRM routing engine, which uses OpenStreetMap roads and no traffic, from the Municipal Center on October 5, 2026. Treat these as best-case estimates. Vernon Hills is about 40 road miles and 52 minutes. Downtown Chicago is about 66 miles and 84 minutes. O'Hare is about 62 miles and 95 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 31 miles and 41 minutes, and Milwaukee's airport about 25 miles and 33 minutes.

Closer in, Burlington is about 12 miles and 20 minutes, downtown Racine about 16 miles and 30 minutes, and Lake Geneva about 26 miles and 42 minutes.

For a Lake County, Illinois buyer, Union Grove is closer to Milwaukee than to Vernon Hills, and about 10 minutes farther from the Illinois line than the Town of Paris to its south. Every route to Chicago uses I-94, so construction or a Friday afternoon can add a lot to these numbers.

Union Grove has no rail service of its own since the line through town was removed. Two stations are within half an hour.

Amtrak's Sturtevant station is about 9 road miles and 16 minutes from the Municipal Center by the same free-flow router. In Amtrak's schedule data published October 5, 2026, it had 6 Hiawatha trains in each direction on weekdays. Most southbound rides to Chicago Union Station were scheduled at 76 minutes, with the first morning train at 84, and northbound rides to Milwaukee at 39 to 41 minutes. Weekends had 5 or 6 each way. Amtrak's printed 2026 Hiawatha timetable, valid March 2026 to March 2027, lists seven southbound departures from Sturtevant with 66- to 74-minute rides, so the October data likely reflects a temporary schedule; check the week you plan to ride. The Sturtevant guide covers the station itself.

Kenosha, the north end of Metra's Union Pacific North line, is about 17 road miles and 29 minutes away. In Metra's GTFS schedule data for the week of October 12, 2026, it had 10 weekday trains to Ogilvie and 9 back, with rides of 92 to 102 minutes, plus 8 each way on Saturdays and on Sundays. Antioch, on Metra's North Central Service, is about 16 miles and 24 minutes, with 7 weekday trains each way and no weekend service in the same data.

For a hybrid schedule to the Loop, the Hiawatha from Sturtevant is the fastest rail option, about an hour and 45 minutes door to door with the drive and a short walk at Union Station.

For a 2.6-square-mile village, Union Grove has a long park list. The village's resident guidebook describes each one.

The two biggest open spaces are natural areas. Lincoln Woods Memorial Nature Walk covers about 18 acres at the north end of Commerce Drive with a nature trail, and Lauer Wildlife Preserve is a 13-acre conservancy in the northeast corner with wetlands and a fishing pond on the West Branch of the Root River.

For active use, American Legion Memorial Park, about 10 acres on Main Street between the high school and downtown, has a dog park, a baseball field and a playground, with a new playground going in during 2026. School Yard Park, on the former grade school site two blocks from Highways 45 and 11, has two baseball fields, soccer fields, a walking path, a fitness area, a picnic shelter, a performance pavilion and a concession stand. Leider Park, 3.5 acres at High Street and 8th Avenue, got a splash pad in 2025, according to the 2026 budget; it has a soccer field and a picnic shelter, and dogs are not allowed. There is no public pool.

Smaller parks round it out: Bufton Park near 12th Avenue and Elizabeth Street, the 3.5-acre Ryan Moe and Michael Young Memorial Park on 67th Drive, and Village Square Park, a pocket park on Main Street with a gazebo. Canopy Hill added a public walking trail that the village accepted in 2025.

Graham Public Library, at 1215 Main Street, is open six days a week. Golf is a short drive: Travel Wisconsin lists Ives Grove Golf Links, a 27-hole links-style county course with 110 bunkers, on Washington Avenue in Yorkville.

The biggest event in the area is the Racine County Fair, held at the county fairgrounds at 19805 Durand Avenue on Highway 11. The village's guidebook calls the fairgrounds "just outside of the borders of Union Grove," and the Census geocoder places the address in the Village of Yorkville. The fair's website lists the 2026 fair as July 29 to August 2 and sets the 2027 fair for July 28 to August 1. WRJN reported that the fair began in 1922 and lists a demolition derby, a midway, horse shows and tractor pulls.

If you are buying near Highway 11 west of Highway 45, go during fair week. Five days of traffic, lights and noise are part of owning a house near the grounds, and so is the access the rest of the year.

Downtown has a calendar of its own. The guidebook lists the Union Grove Public Market on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., June through September, in Village Square. The village's July 2026 e-news announced a Main Street car show on August 8, 2026, and the May 2026 e-news listed Yoga in the Park from June 3 to August 29 and a park clean-up day on May 2. The Chamber's Fall Fest on Main Street was held October 11 in 2025; I could not confirm a 2026 date.

Most of the change in Union Grove over the next two years is infrastructure.

A new fire station is nearly done. Union Grove and Yorkville voters approved a joint station in November 2024, the department held its groundbreaking on September 29, 2025, and Yorkville's conditional use approval describes about 23,730 square feet at 2705 South Colony Avenue, on Highway 45 just north of the village. The village's October 2026 e-news put it at about 80% complete, with final completion targeted for late December 2026. The old station on Main Street then becomes one of the downtown redevelopment sites.

Roads come next. The September 2026 e-news says the joint 67th Drive reconstruction with Yorkville started around September 8, 2026, runs 90 to 120 days, costs $2,372,949, and removes the old railroad trestle to build a new White River State Trail crossing. The July e-news says the High Street and 8th Avenue reconstruction should finish in mid to late fall 2026. For 2027, the August e-news lists 11th and 13th Avenues, West Street and 9th Avenue, and says Main Street at 7th Avenue will close permanently. WisDOT's resurfacing of Highway 45 through the village has been moved to 2029, per the June e-news.

The industrial park is growing. The August 2026 e-news reports a roughly 12,000-square-foot addition for Custom Truck One Source on Leider Drive early in 2026 and a second 10,000-square-foot phase approved July 6, 2026, and the 2026 budget records a site plan for Byfuglien, Inc. on a former village property. The village lists a 43-acre site at Highway 11 and 69th Drive, zoned for commercial and light industrial use, as available through the county's economic development corporation.

The long-range map is the village's 2050 Land Use Plan, adopted August 3, 2020. Before buying at the edge of the village, I would check the parcel and the land across the road against that map.

Union Grove has no police department of its own. The village's public safety page says it contracts with the Racine County Sheriff's Office for police service, and that fire and EMS come from the Union Grove-Yorkville Fire Department, which serves both villages. I don't characterize the safety of any town or neighborhood. If you want the data, ask the Sheriff's Office, or look up any agency on the FBI's Crime Data Explorer.

Prices are moderate: Zillow's typical value was $341,532 in August 2026, and new Canopy Hill homes start around $615,000.

The trade-offs are specific. The 2025 tax rate of about $14.01 per $1,000 of assessed value is higher than in Yorkville or most of Dover, though lower than Sturtevant's or Racine's. There is no lakefront and little acreage inside the village. Downtown is about to change under a 15-year redevelopment plan, Canopy Hill will be under construction for several more years, and the fairgrounds bring a busy week every summer. The nearest train is in Sturtevant.

The one thing I would never skip here is the municipality check. A "Union Grove, WI 53182" listing can be in the village, Yorkville, Dover, Raymond, Paris or Brighton, and the taxes, schools and utilities change with it.