A typical Melrose home is worth roughly $152,000
Builders were permitted 3 new homes in 2025.
What kind of housing town is Melrose?
Read from the numbers below. The page puts what stands out first.
A typical home costs 3.1 years of income
Less than across Wisconsin (4.4 years). Try your own numbers below.
That covers a typical Melrose home, with $27K to spare.
A two-bedroom rents for about $1,210 a month here, $240 more than owning.
An estimate, not a loan offer: payments of up to 28% of income, a 30-year fixed loan, Melrose’s typical property tax (1.39% of value a year, from the Census) and insurance of about 0.35%. Mortgage insurance, HOA fees and other debts aren’t included.
72% of Melrose households own their home
Half of Melrose’s homes were built before 1952.
Wisconsin: 68% own.
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020-2024 · figures for a place this size carry wide margins of error.
A two-bedroom rents for about $1,210
Renters already here pay a median of $744, so moving in tends to cost more than staying put.
Fair Market Rent a month, utilities included
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Fair Market Rents by ZIP code (La Crosse-Onalaska, WI-MN HUD Metro FMR Area): the 40th-percentile rent plus utilities for a standard unit. Median rent and renters: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey.
3 new homes permitted in 2025
Builders were permitted 3 new homes in Melrose in 2025, all single-family houses. Over the past 10 years, Melrose has permitted 8 homes in all.
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, Melrose gained 41 residents with no new homes permitted, so the growth came from existing homes. Across Wisconsin: 1.3 new residents per new home.
Every year as a table
| Year | New homes | Single-family | 2+ per building | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (Jan–Aug) | 1 | 1 | 0 | $321,000 |
| 2025 | 3 | 3 | 0 | $962,000 |
| 2024 | 3 | 3 | 0 | $962,000 |
| 2023 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2022 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2021 | 2 | 2 | 0 | $490,000 |
| 2020 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2019 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2018 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2017 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2016 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2015 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2014 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2013 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2012 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2011 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2010 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2009 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2008 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2007 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2006 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $175,000 |
| 2005 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2004 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| 2003 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $100,000 |
| 2002 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $112,000 |
| 2001 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $80,000 |
| 2000 | 1 | 1 | 0 | $70,000 |
Melrose's permit office didn't report to the Census in 2025, so the 2025 figures are Census estimates.
Homes authorized by building permits, counted in the year the permit was issued. U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey.
Neighbors talk housing
What Melrose buyers, sellers and renters are saying.
Your answer becomes a post in Town Square.
Home values: Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), Zillow Research. Sales, days on market and supply: Redfin Data Center. Income, ownership, taxes and rent: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey. New homes: U.S. Census Bureau, Building Permits Survey. Fair Market Rents: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Listings link to their publishers. The calculator is an estimate, not a loan offer.