Beloit housing market catching up - a little - to rest of Rock County

BELOIT — The prices of houses in Beloit remain a relative bargain when compared to the rest of Rock County and Wisconsin.

But, according to an analysis of Wisconsin home values by Texas- based Stacker News, Beloit home prices have gained some ground on neighboring communities over the past five years.

Stacker compiled home values using data from Zillow on cities throughout Wisconsin. As of November, the “typical” home value for Beloit was $179,704. In Zillow stats, the typical home value is the average value of homes in the 35th to 65th percentile range. Stacker didn’t separate the Town of Beloit from the City of Beloit.

The next lowest “typical” home values were $248,676 for Orfordville and $263,547 for Janesville. The highest Rock County home values were in the Town of Porter in the northwest corner of Rock County. The home values in that town of about 1,000 people was $455,225.

Home prices in Beloit, like all of Wisconsin have been rising rapidly because of a lack of homes on the market since the COVID-19 pandemic and rising rents, creating bidding wars on the few available homes. Over the past five years, Beloit home values rose $72,310 from November 2019. That’s a five-year increase of 67.3%. Every city and town in Rock County saw home values grow by at least 45% over the same time frame, but the second highest five-year increase was the Town of Fulton, north of Janesville, where home values increased from $224,286 in 2019 to $353,027 in November 2024 — a 57.4% increase.

Shelly Cronin, a Realtor for Century 21 Affiliated, said ironically it’s Beloit’s low price point that is a factor in its rapidly rising prices.

“The amount of investment that Diane Hendricks (chairman of Hendricks Holding Co.) has put into Beloit certainly has helped,” said Cronin, who has been selling houses in the Beloit area since 2005. Hendricks has made critical investments in dozens of Beloit businesses and buildings over the past 25 years, including ABC Supply Stadium, the Ironworks Campus, and the Beloit Club.

“I’m seeing more people moving here from Madison because a $200,000 house here costs $600,000 in Madison. That’s driving up prices,” Cronin said. “We just saw a house on (the 700 block of) Park Avenue sell for $699,000. I never thought I’d see a sale like that in Beloit in my lifetime.”

As good as the housing market has been in Beloit, the market is as hot around Madison. According to Zillow’s stats, the typical home values in Shorewood Hills off Lake Mendota in north Madison rose $82,907 in 2024 alone. A typical home there now is worth $1.05 million. The hottest housing market over the past five years was Sobieski, a little town north of Green Bay, where housing values grew by 72.1% since 2019 to $441,140.

“You can still get a good house in Beloit for a good price,” Cronin said, “But it is getting harder to find really good deals.”