Yorkville, WI

Yorkville is old as a town and new as a village. The village's history page says the Wisconsin Legislature organized the Town of Yorkville on February 7, 1842, and incorporated it with 36 sections in 1846, bounded by what are now Two Mile Road, I-94, County Line Road and Raynor Avenue. Union Grove incorporated as a village inside it in 1893.

The village kept the shape of the old town. Its 2020-2050 Comprehensive Plan, amended in October 2024, describes Raymond to the north, Mount Pleasant to the east, the Town of Dover to the west and the Town of Paris in Kenosha County to the south, with I-94 along the whole eastern border. Union Grove sits in Yorkville's southwest corner and shares nearly all of its borders with Yorkville. Inside the village are three crossroads with old names: Ives Grove, Sylvania and Yorkville.

Yorkville's one listed historic building is a schoolhouse. The Wisconsin Historical Society's record describes Yorkville #4 School, at 17640 Old Yorkville Road, as a cream-brick one-room school built in 1885 and used as a school until 1960. A 4-H club began meeting there in 1934 and bought it in 1966, and it joined the National Register on August 4, 2011. The comprehensive plan adds that 49 other Yorkville sites are on the state's architecture and history inventory, including farmhouses and barns along Highway 20, the Fairview and Badger schoolhouses, and the Modine-Benstead Observatory on 63rd Drive.

Several of those inventory buildings are working landmarks a buyer will drive past: the Nelson barn at 19120 Washington Avenue, a basement barn on Highway 20; the W. Hunter farmstead's barn and house at 19411 Washington Avenue; the old Union School at 19312 County Line Road; and Sherman's Motel at 14017 Highway 11. Being on the state inventory records a building's history. It does not, by itself, restrict what an owner can do with it, so I would ask the county before planning changes to one.

Yorkville became a village by referendum. The village's Ordinance 2020-01 records the vote on April 3, 2018, under a state law created in 2017, the certification on April 9, and the Department of Administration's certificate of incorporation on April 18, 2018.

The reason was annexation. TMJ4 reported in January 2018 that the town chairman said village status would keep surrounding municipalities from annexing Yorkville land and let Yorkville control the pace of growth ahead of Foxconn's planned plant in neighboring Mount Pleasant. The town was also marking areas near I-94 as "urban reserve" in its land use plan at the time.

That history explains two practical facts for a buyer. First, Yorkville's borders are now fixed in a way a town's are not: a neighboring city or village cannot annex a Yorkville parcel. Second, Yorkville did not write a new zoning code. Its zoning chapter adopted the Racine County Zoning Code as the village code in June 2018, says later county amendments apply only if the village adopts them, and has the county's Public Works and Development Services director act as zoning administrator under contract. Permits, rezonings and variances are filed at the county office on Washington Avenue in Yorkville.

Addresses add one more wrinkle. Yorkville has no post office of its own, so homes carry Union Grove 53182, Sturtevant 53177 or Racine addresses. The village office is in the Union Grove Municipal Center at 925 15th Avenue, inside the Village of Union Grove. I ran listings through the Census Bureau's geocoder, and the tax bill, not the envelope, is what tells you which village you are in.

Yorkville's eastern edge is an interstate business district. The village's I-94 Corridor Master Plan, dated December 16, 2019, counts three interchanges, at Highways 20 and 11 and County KR, with Sylvania Avenue and West Frontage Road running parallel along nearly the whole edge. The comprehensive plan cites WisDOT counts of about 89,400 vehicles a day on I-94 between Highways 20 and 11 and about 90,200 between Highway 11 and County KR in 2017.

The anchor is GrandView Business Park. Racine County's economic development corporation lists it at 228 acres with municipal water and sewer, pad-ready sites and a tax increment district, and only 3.3 acres still available on October 5, 2026. Hillwood's flyer for Building 4, at 14125 West GrandView Parkway, describes 194,147 square feet with 32-foot clear height, listed as 100% leased. BizTimes reported in March 2019 that Hillwood paid $33 million for two existing buildings and vacant land there to build speculative industrial space, and the county EDC announced a 145,418-square-foot Amazon delivery station in the park in June 2020.

Data centers have come up and been turned away. Spectrum News reported on December 5, 2025 that a broker pitched a farm at 2400 55th Drive, west of I-94 and north of the Highway 11 interchange, as a backup data center site, and that Microsoft said it was not evaluating any Yorkville sites. Three days later BizTimes reported that village officials made clear a data center would have little chance of approval.

For a buyer, the corridor cuts both ways. Land near the interchanges is priced for business use, as the market section shows. BizTimes reported in August 2018 that Lansing Cos. paid $2.5 million for 28 acres southwest of Highway 11 and I-94 to subdivide for gas stations, restaurants and similar uses. The corridor plan also sets housing densities for the area: rural residential at 3 acres or more per home, suburban residential at 1.5 to 2.9 acres, low density from 19,000 square feet to 1.49 acres, and medium density from 6,200 to 18,999 square feet per unit. A few miles west, the same village holds its farmland and 3-acre lots. Before buying east of Highway 45, I would read the corridor plan's land use map for the parcel and the land around it.

Yorkville housing is mostly detached houses on their own land. The Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey counts 1,231 housing units. About 85% (1,049) are detached single-family houses, and about 136 are manufactured homes. There are very few duplexes or apartment buildings. Of 1,217 occupied homes, 1,113, about 91%, are owner-occupied.

The stock spans every era. The survey's median year built is 1981, against 1968 for Racine County. About 155 homes predate 1940, many of them farmhouses. The 1990s added about 220, and about 302 have been built since 2000.

Values are well above the county's. The survey's median owner-estimated value is $385,200, against $251,400 for Racine County. About 30% of owner-occupied homes (339 of 1,113) are valued at $500,000 or more, and the survey estimates about 64 at $1 million or more, with margins wide enough that the top end is uncertain.

The Department of Revenue's 2025 equalized values show how much of Yorkville is business property. Residential property is $557.5 million, only about 54% of the village's $1.04 billion total. Commercial property is $344.7 million, about 33%, and manufacturing $84.3 million, about 8%, most of it along I-94. Agricultural land carries only $5.0 million because Wisconsin taxes farmland at use value.

In Yorkville, the sewer line decides the lot size. The village's land division chapter requires a lot created by certified survey map to be at least 1 acre with 150 feet of frontage where public sewer is available, and at least 3 acres with 300 feet of frontage where it is not. Conservation-design subdivisions without sewer need a density of no more than one home per five acres. The comprehensive plan sets 5-acre density as the policy for subdivisions in its agricultural and rural residential areas.

Zoning districts follow the county's code. The village's June 2026 height ordinance restates the minimum lots: 5 acres and 300 feet wide in R-1 Country Estate, 40,000 square feet in unsewered R-2, 20,000 in sewered R-3, down to 7,200 in R-5, with houses capped at 35 feet. The A-2 farming and residential district also requires 40,000 square feet per home, and farmland preservation zoning lets eligible owners claim the state's farmland credit.

Yorkville also sets a floor on house size. A 2024 ordinance requires at least 1,400 square feet of total living area per home, with at least 1,000 on the ground floor of a multi-story house.

Two more rules matter on rural land. Racine County administers shoreland, floodplain and wetland zoning for the village under a contract renewed in December 2025, and the zoning code carries a 75-foot shore setback; the East and West Branches of the Root River run the length of the village. And a 2024 plan amendment allows utility-scale solar and wind in the agricultural and M-1 districts.

Drainage is the other rural rule to know. The comprehensive plan says the Root River's West Branch canal is part of the Yorkville and Raymond farm drain tile system, run by the Racine County Board of Drainage Commissioners, and that the village lies in the Pike-Root and Des Plaines watersheds. Parcels in a drainage district can carry assessments; neighboring Union Grove's September 2026 e-news reports it is contesting a $2.34 million one. I would ask whether a parcel is in a drainage district before writing an offer.

Coming from Lake County, Illinois, where a 1-acre lot reads as large, a 3-acre minimum surprises buyers. It is also what keeps most of Yorkville looking the way it does.

Yorkville has few platted neighborhoods; most homes sit on their own parcels along section roads. The pockets below are how listings and the village's documents group them.

Yorkshire Highlands is the newest subdivision. The village approved a development agreement with TNG 27, LLC in January 2024 and accepted its roads, utilities, street lights, trails and stormwater facilities on November 11, 2024, along with a conservation stewardship plan. The builder, Newport Builders, listed lots from $149,900 and two new homes on Highland Way at $898,900 (2,621 square feet) and $962,900 (2,679 square feet) on October 5, 2026.

The Highway 45 corridor north of Union Grove has the denser rural homes, including the Colony Avenue stretch where the new fire station is going up. A Colony Avenue house on 2.35 acres was listed at $529,900 on Compass on October 5, 2026.

The southwest edge around 69th Drive and 58th Road borders Union Grove and Canopy Hill. A 5-bedroom, 4,440-square-foot house on 3.22 acres on 69th Drive was listed at $899,900 the same day, and the Census geocoder places it in the Union Grove elementary district rather than Yorkville's.

Ives Grove and the Highway 20 corridor in the north-central part of the village hold older farmsteads, the county golf course and county offices; a 6-bedroom house on Ives Grove Road was listed at $879,000.

The I-94 edge, along Sylvania Avenue and 58th Road toward Sturtevant, mixes acreage homes with business land. A 2-bedroom house on 2.08 acres on 58th Road with a Sturtevant address was listed at $799,900.

Zillow's home value index, which tracks a typical mid-tier home, put Yorkville at $542,069 in August 2026, up 7.7% from $503,474 in August 2025 and 11.0% from $488,378 in August 2024. In the same month the Town of Dover was $503,026, Union Grove $341,532 and Racine County $318,751.

Sales are few. Movoto's market page showed 26 active listings on October 5, 2026, seven sales in September and a September median sale price of $649,900, with a long 246 median days on market. Seven sales is too small a sample to read much into one month's median.

Homes for sale ran from $444,900 to about $962,900 on the fetched listing pages that day. I found no Yorkville home listed at $1 million or more, so Yorkville is not a $2 million house market. Its top tier is new construction at Yorkshire Highlands and larger homes on 3 to 5 acres.

Land is a different market. Movoto's land page on October 5, 2026 listed 249.73 acres on Durand Avenue (Highway 11) at $55,003,033 and 35.53 acres on South Sylvania Avenue at $7,825,500, both about $220,000 an acre, plus 28.42 acres on Durand at $9,300,000, about $327,000 an acre, and 24.01 acres on Braun Road at $6,240,000. Those are priced for business or development use near I-94. Residential lots on Highland Way ran $164,900 to $214,900 for 1 to 2.7 acres, and lots on Durand $149,900 to $229,900 for 2 to 2.83 acres. A 17.64-acre property on Braun Road with a small house was listed at $649,900, which shows what rural acreage away from the corridor trades at.

I would price a Yorkville home on its acreage, sewer or septic, outbuildings, school district and distance from the corridor, and use the Zillow index for direction only.

Yorkville has three tax rates, and the school district and water district decide which one applies. Racine County's 2025 mill rate sheet lists $13.537078 per $1,000 of assessed value for the Yorkville J2 and Union Grove High combination, $13.922456 for the same combination inside the village water district, and $12.196566 for the part of the village in Union Grove's elementary district. Those rates are net of the state school levy credit and before the lottery and gaming credit and the first dollar credit.

Assessments sit a little below market. The Department of Revenue's 2025 report puts Yorkville's assessment level at 0.93 and its effective full-value rate at 1.256% after credits, against 1.369% in Union Grove, 1.563% in Sturtevant and 0.977% in the Town of Dover.

A worked example at Zillow's typical August 2026 value of $542,069. At a 0.93 ratio the assessment would be about $504,100. At $13.537078 per $1,000, the 2025 bill would be about $6,825 before the two credits. In the Union Grove elementary part of the village it would be about $6,149. The DOR's November 2025 report says the lottery and gaming credit, for a primary residence only, is figured on the first $27,000 of value and averaged $190 statewide for 2025-26.

The business corridor helps. With commercial and manufacturing property at about 41% of the village's equalized value, residential owners carry a smaller share of the levy than in a purely residential town. One tax increment district holds about $62.6 million of value outside the general levy until it closes.

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, its school and water districts, your credits and the assessor.

Most Yorkville homes are on a private well and septic. The comprehensive plan says the village water utility has one well and one 750,000-gallon elevated tank and served 34 commercial customers in 2018, with Ives Grove Golf Links its largest customer, and that homes outside the water service area use private wells. The village approved a second, redundant well with a backup generator on GrandView Parkway in October 2024.

Sewer is limited too. The plan says the sewer system dates from 1965 and that Yorkville Sewer Utility District No. 1 runs a treatment plant rated at 0.150 million gallons a day, with a service area set with the regional planning commission. Outside it, the 3-acre minimum for new lots exists precisely because the home will be on septic. On any Yorkville purchase I would write a well water test and a septic inspection into the inspection period, and ask whether the parcel is inside the sewer or water district.

Trash is arranged by the owner. The village's utilities page says curbside pickup is contracted privately, with several haulers serving the village, and that the village runs a drop-off site on Wednesday afternoons and Saturdays. Racine County Public Works maintains and plows the roads. Gas and electricity come from We Energies, and the plan's 2020 broadband map showed gaps, so I would confirm internet service for the exact address.

Most of the village is in the Yorkville J2 School District, a one-school district running Yorkville Elementary for 4-year-old kindergarten through 8th grade at 18621 Washington Avenue. The DOR's 2025 apportionment puts about $852 million of the village's taxable value in Yorkville J2 and about $123 million in Union Grove J1, mostly around Union Grove. For high school, the whole village is in the Union Grove Union High School district; Yorkville supplies about 38% of that district's taxable value, more than any other municipality.

Both districts have recent referendums on the tax bill. Yorkville J2 voters approved up to $12.1 million in building borrowing and $900,000 a year above the revenue limit on April 4, 2023, according to the superintendent's newsletter. Union Grove High's roughly $35 million building referendum passed in November 2024, and TMJ4 reported the new technical education wing, science rooms and secure entrances.

Assignment follows the parcel, not the mailing address. A Union Grove 53182 address in Yorkville can be in either elementary district, and the 69th Drive listing in the neighborhoods section is one example. Confirm the district on the tax bill.

Yorkville's commute advantage is that the interstate is part of the village. Highway 20 (Washington Avenue), Highway 11 (Durand Avenue) and County KR each reach I-94 at the village's eastern edge, and Highway 45 runs north and south through the west side.

I ran free-flow routes on the OSRM routing engine, which uses OpenStreetMap roads and no traffic, from Yorkville Elementary on Washington Avenue, near the middle of the village, on October 5, 2026. Treat these as best-case estimates. Vernon Hills is about 43 road miles and 54 minutes. Downtown Chicago is about 70 miles and 87 minutes. O'Hare is about 66 miles and 98 minutes. Downtown Milwaukee is about 28 miles and 38 minutes, and Milwaukee's airport about 22 miles and 29 minutes.

Closer in, Union Grove is about 5 miles and 9 minutes, downtown Racine about 14 miles and 24 minutes, Burlington about 14 miles and 22 minutes, and Lake Geneva about 29 miles and 47 minutes.

Because the village is 33.5 square miles, the east side near I-94 is several minutes closer to everything than the west side near Highway 45. For a buyer splitting time between Lake County, Illinois and Milwaukee, Yorkville sits closer to Milwaukee, but both are within an hour in free flow.

Yorkville has no rail stop, but the Hiawatha is close. Amtrak's Sturtevant station is about 7 road miles and 12 minutes from Yorkville Elementary 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, with most rides to Chicago Union Station scheduled at 76 minutes and rides to Milwaukee at 39 to 41 minutes. 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 station has 170 parking spaces, and parking was $10 a visit, good for up to 30 days, after a February 2025 increase. The Sturtevant guide covers the station.

Kenosha, the north end of Metra's Union Pacific North line, is about 21 miles and 32 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.

The village's utilities and transportation page also lists Racine's Belle Urban System Route 20, which serves the GrandView area.

Several of Racine County's own facilities are in Yorkville. The comprehensive plan names Evans Park, off Washington Avenue, as the largest park in the village, owned and run by the county, along with the county fairgrounds.

Ives Grove Golf Links, at 14101 Washington Avenue, is a county course. Visit Racine County describes three 9-hole courses, Red, White and Blue, with 110 bunkers in a links style and a year-round practice facility, and the county's golf page lists it at 168 acres and 27 holes.

The Racine County Fair is held at the fairgrounds on Durand Avenue, which use a Union Grove address but sit in Yorkville. WRJN reported that the fair began in 1922 and ran July 29 to August 2 in 2026, with a demolition derby, midway, horse shows and tractor pulls.

The Racine Astronomical Society's Modine-Benstead Observatory, at 112 63rd Drive, holds free public open houses once a month from April through October, according to the society's site. Its dark-sky location is a product of the same farmland that defines the village.

The Root River's East and West Branches run north through the village, and Union Grove's parks, library and Main Street are minutes from most Yorkville homes; the Union Grove guide covers them.

Recent village approvals, listed on Yorkville's ordinances and resolutions page, show where change is landing.

The biggest public project is the joint Union Grove-Yorkville fire station. Yorkville approved it in June 2025 at about 23,730 square feet on a roughly 32-acre site at 2705 South Colony Avenue on Highway 45, served by sewer and water, and rezoned the site for commercial service. The village approved about $10.5 million in notes for its share. Union Grove's October 2026 e-news put the station at about 80% complete, with final completion targeted for late December 2026.

Racine County is adding a public safety building connected to the Sheriff's Office patrol station at 14116 Washington Avenue, approved by the village in January 2026.

Smaller business approvals fill the corridor. In 2025 the village approved self-storage and business suites at 18917 Spring Street, with seven storage buildings, two climate-controlled commercial buildings and six business-suite buildings. In 2026 it approved machinery storage in two existing buildings on 58th Road, an industrial equipment dealership on North Sylvania Avenue and a medical-waste processing use on GrandView Parkway.

Roads are next. The village approved relocation orders for the joint 67th Drive reconstruction with Union Grove in 2026 and authorized up to $800,000 in state trust fund borrowing for roadwork.

Before buying near Spring Street, Sylvania Avenue or GrandView Parkway, I would read the conditional use approvals for the neighboring parcels. They spell out hours, lighting and screening in detail.

Yorkville has no police department of its own. The comprehensive plan says the Racine County Sheriff's Office provides patrol, from a station at 14116 Washington Avenue in the village. Fire and EMS come from the Union Grove-Yorkville Fire Department, which covers about 36 square miles across both villages at the paramedic level. 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.

Its effective tax rate of 1.256% is lower than Union Grove's or Sturtevant's, helped by a large business tax base.

The trade-offs are specific. Most homes are on wells and septic, and new lots without sewer must be 3 acres or more, which limits how much new housing gets built. Few homes sell in a given month, and the top of the market is around $900,000 rather than the multi-million estates some buyers expect from acreage. The east side borders an active business corridor, with warehouses, storage and a data center pitch that came and went in 2025. Taxes vary by school and water district within the village.

The one thing I would never skip here is the parcel check: sewer or septic, school district, water district and the corridor plan's map for the land across the road.