Zillow and Census data, September 2026

Rental property math in Madison, WI

A typical Madison home is worth $445,747 and a typical single-family rental there gets $2,804 a month, 0.63% of the price. At 80% LTV and an assumed 7.25% rate, rent divided by the full payment is 0.88x. A DSCR loan needs 1.05x, which takes $3,331 of rent, $527 more than typical.

Typical home value: $445,747+3.1% in a year
Single-family rent: $2,804+3.6% in a year
Rent / price, monthly: 0.63%250th of 574 metros
Property tax rate: 1.39%$6,207 a year on the typical home
DSCR at 80% LTV: 0.88x323rd of 574; 1.05x needed
Cash to close: $102,52220% down + 3% costs

The DSCR on the typical Madison house

Loan: $445,747 × 80% = $356,598. At 7.25% over 30 years, principal and interest are $2,433 a month. Taxes: $445,747 × 1.39% = $6,207 a year, $517 a month. Insurance, assumed at 0.6% of value: $2,674 a year, $223 a month. Payment (PITIA): $3,173. DSCR: $2,804 ÷ $3,173 = 0.88x.

Rent that clears 1.05x: $3,173 × 1.05 = $3,331.

Even a rate one point lower, 6.25%, only gets the typical house to 0.96x, so in Madison the deal has to come from the house, not the rate.

What it would take to reach 1.05x

Find $527 more rent a month: a house that rents above the metro's typical $2,804, or a 2-4 unit property where the units add up to $3,331.
Pay less: at today's typical rent, 80% LTV works on a purchase of about $375,181 or below (16% under the typical price), counting the lower taxes and insurance on a cheaper house.
Borrow less: on the typical house the rent supports a loan of $282,969, about 63% LTV, so you would put $162,778 down instead of $89,149.

How Madison compares

Madison's rent-to-price ratio ranks 250th of 574 metros and 3rd of 17 Wisconsin metros in this data. It ranks 323rd on DSCR, lower than on rent-to-price, because its 1.39% tax rate is heavier than most metros carry. Over the year to September 2026, rents rose 3.6% while prices rose 3.1%, so the rent-to-price ratio got better. That is in line with the median metro (+3.5%).

Medians across metros in this data, September 2026. "Wisconsin" is the 17 metros whose name lists WI first.
	Madison, WI	Wisconsin	All 574 metros
Typical price	$445,747	$315,026	$287,147
Single-family rent	$2,804	$1,608	$1,771
Rent / price	0.63%	0.54%	0.61%
Rent, 1-year change	+3.6%	+6.0%	+3.5%
Price, 1-year change	+3.1%	+5.2%	+2.2%
Property tax rate	1.39%	1.20%	0.75%
DSCR at 80% LTV	0.88x	0.77x	0.91x
Metros at 1.05x or better	No	1 of 17	126 of 574

Homeowners here pay 1.39% of value in property tax, above the Wisconsin average of 1.19%. It is what owner-occupants pay on average, including long-time owners and any owner exemptions, so treat it as a floor for a rental you buy now. Zillow's all-homes rent index, which mixes in apartments, is $1,780 here; single-family houses rent 58% higher.

Nearby metros

Nearest metros in this data by distance between metro centers. Linked metros have their own page.
Metro	Miles	Price	SFR rent	Rent / price	DSCR
Janesville, WI	39	$296,850	$1,608	0.54%	0.77x
Freeport, IL	51	$160,510	$1,230	0.77%	1.03x
Platteville, WI	57	$228,678	$1,750	0.77%	1.10x
Rockford, IL	59	$222,178	$1,652	0.74%	0.97x
Whitewater, WI	61	$405,535	$2,720	0.67%	0.99x

The nearest metro with a better DSCR is Freeport, IL, 51 miles away (1.03x on a typical price of $160,510); the best of these five is Platteville, WI at 1.10x.

These are metro-wide typicals, not any one property. The lender's appraisal sets the value and market rent for the house you buy, and the lender uses the lower of the lease and that market rent (90% of it on a vacant unit). The rate is a placeholder for the math, not a quote. How the numbers are built.

Sources

Home values: Zillow Research, Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, middle tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted, metro level, September 2026 (CSV).
Rents: Zillow Research, Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), single-family residences, smoothed, metro level, September 2026 (CSV). The all-homes index that includes apartments is used only for the comparison line (CSV).
Property tax: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates. The rate is aggregate real estate taxes paid (table B25090, file) divided by aggregate home value (table B25082, file) for owner-occupied homes in the metro area or state.
Distances between metros: U.S. Census Bureau 2024 Gazetteer file for metro areas (ZIP).

Home value and rent data: Zillow, Zillow Home Value Index and Zillow Observed Rent Index. Zillow does not review or endorse this page. Tax and geography data: U.S. Census Bureau. Loan math by Doors Funded. Refreshed when Zillow publishes a new month.