Racine, told straight. By the numbers.
City of Racine single-family in May 2026: the affordability play of the tri-county region. The under-$300K market is the deepest in southeastern Wisconsin.
Where the market sits, may 2026.
City of Racine median came in at $249,515 in May — the lowest of any city I cover and the most accessible entry point in the tri-county metro.
Sale-to-list ratio at 101.4%. Slightly over asking on the typical close. Bidding competition is real but contained.
Median CDOM at 18 days. Most homes go pending in under three weeks.
Absorption at 1.2 months. Still a tight seller's market with about five weeks of inventory at the current pace.
Source: MLS (FlexMLS via GMAR), single-family, pulled May 17, 2026. Filtered to Racine, Racine County. Numbers reflect what closed in May 2026 and the 2026 year-to-date period.
The mid-tier is doing the work — and the move-up market is real.
The City of Racine is one of the very few places in southeastern Wisconsin where median is still under $300K. May saw 60 closings — 47 of them under $300K. This is genuinely affordable territory by 2026 standards.
But the move-up story is real. The $300K–$400K band did 12 May closings and is up 87.5% YTD. That's not a small base — that's the renovated three-bedrooms in walkable lake-adjacent neighborhoods that are pulling buyers from West Allis and the south side of Milwaukee. The Lake Michigan frontage premium is starting to compound.
The under-$200K band sold 14 homes in May but is down 25.6% YTD. That's the cleanest case in the data of inventory loss, not demand loss. Sub-$200K Racine homes are getting renovated and resold into the $250K–$350K range. The buyer pool there is the strongest in the metro right now.
For buyers: Racine is the answer if your budget caps in the $250K–$350K range and you want a real walkable neighborhood with Lake Michigan access. The realistic search is a 1920s bungalow that's been updated or a 1950s ranch in the West Side or North Side neighborhoods. Don't skip the inspection — old housing stock means real issues to negotiate.
For sellers: if your home has been updated and you're in the $250K–$400K range, you're in the strongest segment of the strongest demand pool in the region. Price right, prep well, and you'll be pending within two weeks.
May 2026 sales, by price tier.
City of Racine activity in May concentrated in the $200K–$300K band (33 sales) and the under-$200K band (14 sales) — together 47 of 60 closings. The $300K–$400K tier is the YTD growth story, up 87.5%.
Numbers tell you what. A conversation tells you whether.
Twenty minutes on the phone. I'll tell you what the May Racine data means for your search — and which Racine neighborhoods actually fit what you're looking for.
Start a conversation