Milwaukee, Wisconsin Airbnb Market Data 2026

What does a Milwaukee short-term rental bring in over a year, and is hosting one even allowed here? Over the twelve months to August 2026, the middle listing in the Milwaukee market took in about $27,200, and the top quarter cleared roughly $43,400. Inside the city limits, though, the median is closer to $22,800. Wisconsin won't let Milwaukee ban you from hosting, so the real question isn't whether you can. It's where in this market you buy.

That distinction matters more here than in most cities, because the market that carries Milwaukee's name reaches a long way past it. Listings run north to Sheboygan, west into the Waukesha County lakes, south through Racine and Kenosha, and out to the Geneva Lakes resort towns in Walworth County, which is where the biggest revenue numbers live. Barely a third of what this market counts is inside the City of Milwaukee itself, in Milwaukee County, so an average built from all of it describes a region rather than a neighborhood you can go shopping in. The Milwaukee market page covers the same footprint, and it's worth keeping that in mind every time you see a headline figure for this market.

On the legal side, your listing is a "tourist rooming house" under state law, and the city's Department of Neighborhood Services issues that license as the state's agent rather than under a Milwaukee ordinance of its own. One thing did change this summer, and it's new enough that most guides haven't caught it: since August, every household within 250 feet of a property applying for that license gets a letter about it in the mail. More on that below, once the numbers are out of the way.

How Much Do Milwaukee Airbnbs Earn in 2026?

Medians tell you more than averages here, since a handful of lake houses at the top pull the mean somewhere no ordinary property lives. The middle listing took in about $27,236 over the past year, at a median nightly rate of $268 and median occupancy of 29.5%, and the 75th percentile sat at $43,392. Split that by geography and the two halves separate: a median listing inside the city earned $22,782, against $29,283 for everything outside it, and the outside-the-city top quartile reached $46,473 where the city's stopped at $35,275.

Part of that gap comes down to size, because the middle city listing has two bedrooms while the middle listing beyond the city has three. Here's how the medians run by bedroom count across the whole market. They come out of my own build. The bedroom module on this page reports typical, low and high performers instead of a median, so the two answer different questions.

Bedrooms	Median annual revenue	Top quartile	Median nightly rate
Studio	$15,132	$19,520	$149
1	$17,330	$23,340	$176
2	$22,252	$31,246	$223
3	$31,277	$40,593	$310
4+	$60,397	$87,807	$632

Medians of listings meeting the market's own availability filter, twelve months to August 2026, from BNBCalc market data pulled 25 September 2026.

Four-bedroom-plus properties are where this market pays, and they pay roughly twice what a three-bedroom does against the same median. That ratio isn't a Milwaukee quirk so much as a lake-house effect: a large share of those big listings sit on water outside the city, where a median 4+ home earned $64,807 against $51,777 for one inside the city limits. If you're buying in the city, the honest comparison is that in-city column, not the market-wide one.

Who else is bidding on these properties? Repeat operators run a large share of the market's listings, and the mix isn't even across it. Downtown blocks and the older east-side buildings lean heavily toward hosts running several units, while the lake towns and the outer suburbs carry more one-property owners. That matters when you price, because a professional next door reprices weekly and an owner with one cottage often doesn't, and it also shapes what you'll pay if you hire out the work instead. Milwaukee's property management landscape sits on the same split.

Is the Milwaukee Airbnb Market Oversaturated?

No, at least not by the measure that usually settles it. Competition hasn't grown here: the number of active listings is down about 1% over the year, which is flat in practice. What has moved is how the money arrives.

Measure, market-wide	Change over the year
Active listings	about 1% lower
Occupancy	about 9% lower
Average nightly rate	about 21% higher
Median purchase price	about 5% higher

Twelve months to August 2026 against the twelve months to August 2025, across every listing in the market, lake towns included. Each measure is averaged on its own, so they don't multiply out into revenue.

Read those two middle rows together and you get the story of the year. Hosts here sold fewer nights, then charged considerably more for each one they did sell, which makes this a pricing market rather than a crowded one. That's a healthier setup than the reverse, since rate is something you control and demand isn't, though it does mean a calendar that looks emptier than it did a year ago is normal rather than a sign you've done something wrong. If your model still leans on the occupancy comparable listings managed a year ago, take roughly a tenth off it before you decide the deal works.

Keep in mind that occupancy softening while rates climb has a limit, and nobody knows where it sits in a given market. The practical check is cheap: pull up five or six comparable listings near your address, look at how full their next ninety days are, and repeat that every few months. If their calendars keep thinning while yours does too, that's competition arriving. If yours thins while theirs fills, that's a pricing or a photography problem, and it's yours to fix.

When Is Milwaukee's Peak Airbnb Season?

Summer, and it isn't close. Milwaukee runs one of the sharper seasonal curves of any large Midwestern market, because almost every reason to visit in July happens outdoors: the lakefront festival grounds, the State Fair, the beer gardens, the boats on Geneva Lake an hour southwest. February gives you none of that.

Month	Occupancy	Average nightly rate
Sep 2025	32.5%	$315
Oct 2025	32.3%	$300
Nov 2025	26.3%	$288
Dec 2025	26.4%	$299
Jan 2026	23.4%	$265
Feb 2026	23.3%	$250
Mar 2026	27.6%	$271
Apr 2026	28.8%	$283
May 2026	35.2%	$356
Jun 2026	45.9%	$446
Jul 2026	49.6%	$491
Aug 2026	46.1%	$454

Market-wide monthly figures for the twelve months to August 2026, city and lake towns together. The nightly rate averages every listing size, so it sits well above what a two-bedroom charges.

July takes it on both counts, with 49.6% occupancy and a $491 average nightly rate. At the other end of the year, February manages 23.3% and $250. So the busiest month runs more than twice as full as the quietest one, and the rate gap between them is nearly two to one on top of that. Three months carry this market, so the underwriting question is whether a property survives the other nine, starting with a March that fills a bit over a quarter of its nights.

The week has its own shape. Saturday occupancy runs about 42% above the weekly average and Monday about 25% below it, while rates only swing about a quarter from the Wednesday floor to the Saturday peak. That gap between the demand swing and the price swing is the opening: weekends here are underpriced relative to how badly people want them, and midweek nights in January are worth discounting hard rather than holding out for. If you're buying a property whose whole case rests on weekday business travel, make sure to check what comparable listings actually charge on a Tuesday in February before you believe the annual figure.

Where Should You Buy an Airbnb in Milwaukee?

Two questions hide inside that one, so they get two separate rankings that never get merged. One ranks neighborhoods inside the city, drawn against the City of Milwaukee's own neighborhood polygons, while the other ranks whole municipalities across the rest of the market, drawn against Census place boundaries. Those are different boundary methods at different scales, so a row in one isn't comparable to a row in the other.

Inside the city first:

City neighborhood	Median revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	Top quartile
Brewer's Hill	$39,455	$418	27%	$70,040
Murray Hill	$35,945	$286	32%	$47,306
Fernwood	$34,531	$301	30%	$60,397
Juneau Town	$27,789	$287	29%	$34,142
Walker's Point	$27,596	$238	33%	$49,013
Lower East Side	$26,166	$258	28%	$48,327
Bay View	$23,559	$219	31%	$33,813
Halyard Park	$23,240	$219	36%	$67,119
Kilbourn Town	$22,414	$219	28%	$27,324
Bluemound Heights	$21,442	$193	32%	$28,902
Riverwest	$19,188	$156	32%	$27,037
Harambee	$16,894	$148	36%	$19,454
Washington Heights	$15,721	$148	31%	$16,364

City of Milwaukee neighborhood polygons, medians for the twelve months to August 2026. Neighborhoods too thin to measure reliably are left out, and the smallest rows here will still move between refreshes.

And the rest of the market, by municipality:

Municipality	Median revenue	Median nightly rate	Median occupancy	Top quartile
Fontana-on-Geneva Lake	$54,087	$575	28%	$67,962
Lake Geneva	$43,223	$458	30%	$84,896
Lac La Belle	$43,016	$530	25%	$64,244
Williams Bay	$41,420	$433	26%	$52,058
Delavan Lake	$37,986	$419	30%	$51,979
Twin Lakes	$37,824	$344	31%	$57,066
Salem Lakes	$37,797	$352	31%	$53,407
Shorewood	$34,973	$278	31%	$44,214
Pewaukee	$34,724	$406	25%	$70,276
Como	$30,897	$289	29%	$46,337
Oconomowoc	$28,994	$275	27%	$36,236
Sheboygan	$24,441	$240	30%	$32,128
Wauwatosa	$23,287	$226	33%	$32,370
Milwaukee	$22,782	$219	30%	$35,275
Racine	$21,500	$224	28%	$38,029
Kenosha	$21,336	$201	32%	$27,197
West Allis	$17,367	$162	30%	$21,660

Census place boundaries, medians for the twelve months to August 2026. Municipalities too thin to measure reliably are left out.

The top of that second table explains why the market-wide numbers run high: seven of the first eight rows are lake towns, strung along Geneva Lake, the Kenosha County chain and Lac La Belle to the west, and they run on a different clock from the city. Those properties fill in summer at rates a city two-bedroom will never see, then sit mostly empty from November to April, so buying one is a bet on summer weekend traffic out of Chicago more than on Milwaukee.

The bottom half of that table is a different proposition again. Sheboygan, Racine, Kenosha, Wauwatosa and West Allis sit close to the city's own median, and they're mostly bought by people who already know the street, since none of them carries the name recognition that fills a calendar on its own. If you're weighing one of those against a city neighborhood, the deciding factor is usually purchase price rather than revenue.

Within the city, three areas keep earning their place. Bay View is the safest of them, a walkable south-side neighborhood with a strong bar and restaurant strip, close enough to the lake and downtown that it books in shoulder season as well as July. Walker's Point pairs a similar restaurant density with a higher occupancy median and a stock of larger converted buildings, which suits a two or three-bedroom rather than a studio. The Lower East Side is where most of Milwaukee's hosts already are, so you'll have plenty of company, though that crowd also hands you the clearest comp set in the city when you go to sanity-check your own numbers.

The three rows at the top of the city table come with a caveat, because Brewer's Hill, Murray Hill and Fernwood are small pockets of expensive homes whose medians turn on a handful of properties apiece. Treat them as a signal about what a well-run large property can do in the right pocket of Milwaukee, rather than as medians you can count on. If you want the neighborhood-by-neighborhood character behind these rankings, the Milwaukee neighborhoods guide covers what each one is like to live in and to own in.

Which Amenities Make the Most Money in Milwaukee?

One amenity is published openly at the market level, and it's a surprising one for a city this size: a sauna is associated with about 20% higher revenue, pooled across all bedroom counts. Wisconsin's sauna culture is old and real, so that's less strange than it looks at first.

Go one level deeper and a different amenity takes over. Broken out by bedroom count, a hot tub leads every size in the market: about 20% higher revenue for a one-bedroom, 19% for a two-bedroom, 22% for a three-bedroom and 12% for four bedrooms and up. The pooled figure hides that entirely, which is the general lesson here. If you're fitting out a specific property, the number that matters is the one for your bedroom count, not the market's headline. Keep in mind too that these figures cover the whole market, lake houses included, so a hot tub on a Geneva Lake deck is carrying more of that average than one behind a duplex in Riverwest.

Several other amenities carry a measurable revenue signal in Milwaukee, though their values stay behind the paywall: a gym, EV charging, lake access, a TV, internet, a pool, a barbecue and bicycles all register in the model without a published figure at the market level. Naming them is as far as I'll go, since inventing a percentage would be worse than leaving the number out. Worth knowing too that the model drops the basics almost every unit already has, since an amenity everybody offers can't tell a good listing from a poor one.

The cleaning fee is its own decision, and plenty of hosts here get it wrong in one direction or the other, given that about half the market charges nothing at all. Among the listings that do charge, the fee averages roughly $99 on a two-bedroom, $140 on a three-bedroom and $242 on four bedrooms and up, as of September 2026. A $140 fee lands as real money on the guest's total rather than a rounding error, so if you're going to charge one, price it against what the comparable listings near you show rather than against what the clean actually costs you.

Is Airbnb Legal in Milwaukee?

Yes, and state law is why. Under section 66.1014 of the Wisconsin statutes, no city, village, town or county in the state may enact or enforce an ordinance prohibiting the rental of a residential dwelling for seven consecutive days or longer, though a local government is allowed to limit rentals of more than six but fewer than thirty consecutive days to no fewer than 180 days in any 365-day period. Where a city does that, the allowed days have to run consecutively, and you have to tell the municipal clerk in writing when your first rental of the period begins. Milwaukee hasn't adopted any such cap, and its zoning code doesn't treat a short-term rental as its own use either. An ordinance to zone them was introduced back in 2020 and is still sitting in committee, so the floor you're working from is the statewide one.

What you do need is a license. Anyone operating a short-term rental for more than ten nights a year has to hold a tourist rooming house license, required by section 97.605 of the statutes and spelled out in chapter ATCP 72 of the state administrative code. Milwaukee's Department of Neighborhood Services issues and inspects under that state chapter as the state's agent, out of its Environmental Division downtown, so the application, the checklist and floor plan it asks for, the payment and the inspection all run through the city even though the rule behind them belongs to the state. Two dates belong in your calendar. ATCP 72 was repealed and rewritten in full, effective 25 January 2026, which moved both the fees and the safety standards, and every license expires on 30 June, except one first issued between April and June, which runs to the 30 June after that.

The newer piece is local, and it's only weeks old. The Common Council passed an ordinance creating section 105-80 of the city code on 31 July 2026, the mayor signed it on 3 August and the city clerk published it on 19 August. It does three things: the department has to mail written notice of any tourist rooming house application to the local council member and to every residence within a 250-foot radius of the property, it has to keep a publicly available list of every short-term rental in the city, and any citation, order or police report tied to activity at a short-term rental now gets reported to the platforms listing that property within 30 days. So your neighbors will know before you open, and a noise complaint that once stayed with the city now travels to Airbnb. A separate ordinance requiring operators to live in Milwaukee was introduced the same day the first one passed, and it's still sitting in committee, which means it isn't law and you shouldn't plan around it either way.

Taxes are the part older guides get wrong most often, mostly because the structure here is unusual: the City of Milwaukee levies no room tax of its own, while the Wisconsin Center District levies one at 3% throughout Milwaukee County plus another 7% inside the City of Milwaukee, which comes to 10% on a city stay. On top of that sits 5% state sales tax, 0.9% Milwaukee County sales tax and the 2% city sales tax that took effect in January 2024, which Milwaukee is still the only municipality in the state to charge. Each of those percentages lands on the guest's total rather than on yours, and when a booking runs through a platform, the platform is the one collecting and remitting both taxes as a marketplace provider. The Wisconsin short-term rental tax guide walks through how that gets reported, and the Milwaukee regulation guide carries the licensing detail, the current fee position and the enforcement picture in full.

Where Does This Milwaukee Airbnb Data Come From?

That guide handles the paperwork, while the figures in this one come out of BNBCalc Markets, the research half of the product, where short-term rental markets get measured side by side so you can see which one deserves your money. Since I raised the operator mix earlier, that's the view I'd open first for Milwaukee: it shows you which companies and repeat hosts are running listings in a market and how much of it they hold, which tells you who sets the price on your street. In a market this split between professional blocks downtown and single-cottage owners out by the lakes, knowing which one you're buying into changes what you should charge.

How Do You Estimate Airbnb Revenue for a Milwaukee Property?

Start wide, at the region, then narrow until you're looking at one address. Start on the Milwaukee market page for the current levels and the seasonal shape, then check where Wisconsin's markets sit against each other on the best Wisconsin markets by gross yield ranking, since a Milwaukee purchase competes with Door County and the Dells for the same dollars. Then feed the specific property into BNBCalc: your offer price, the nightly rate you believe you can hold through a Milwaukee winter, and an insurance quote somebody has put in writing. A median is a starting point, never an answer.

Three Milwaukee-specific thresholds are worth testing before you sign anything.

First, run the winter. February occupancy sits at 23.3% market-wide, so model five months at roughly half your summer nights and see whether the mortgage still clears. Second, run it as a two-bedroom even if you're buying three, because the medians step up sharply with size and it's easy to let the 4+ figures flatter a smaller property. Third, add the license, the inspection and a winterizing budget to year one rather than year two, since a burst pipe in a vacant January rental costs more than every fee in this article put together.

Anywhere with a season this sharp rewards the same discipline. Buy the property that survives the quiet months on its own merits, and let the busy ones be the upside rather than the plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do you need a license to run an Airbnb in Milwaukee?

Yes. Anyone renting a residential dwelling for more than ten nights a year needs a tourist rooming house license, required by section 97.605 of the Wisconsin statutes and detailed in chapter ATCP 72 of the state administrative code. In Milwaukee, the Department of Neighborhood Services issues it as the state's agent: you submit the application and the checklist it asks for, which includes a floor plan, pay, and then the department inspects the property. Licenses expire on 30 June, except one first issued between April and June, which runs to the following 30 June.

What taxes does a Milwaukee short-term rental collect?

A city stay carries 10% in Wisconsin Center District room tax, made up of a 3% basic room tax that applies across Milwaukee County and an additional 7% inside the City of Milwaukee. Sales tax adds 5% state, 0.9% county and 2% city, the last two both effective January 2024. Guests pay all of that on top of the nightly total, which keeps it clear of your own earnings, and a booking made through a platform has the platform collecting and remitting it as a marketplace provider.

Can Milwaukee limit how many nights you rent?

Wisconsin law lets a city cap rentals of more than six but fewer than thirty consecutive days at no fewer than 180 days a year, with those days running consecutively once you start them. Milwaukee hasn't adopted such a cap. No Wisconsin municipality may ban stays of seven consecutive days or longer at all, under section 66.1014 of the state statutes, which is why an outright prohibition isn't on the table here.

Do neighbors get told when you apply for a short-term rental license?

They do now. An ordinance creating section 105-80 of the Milwaukee code passed on 31 July 2026, was signed by the mayor on 3 August and published on 19 August. It requires the Department of Neighborhood Services to mail notice of a tourist rooming house application to the local council member and to every residence within 250 feet, and to publish a list of licensed short-term rentals. Citations and police reports tied to a listing also get reported to the platforms.

Which month is busiest for Milwaukee short-term rentals?

July, at 49.6% market-wide occupancy and a $491 average nightly rate across all listing sizes, with August and June just behind it. February is the low point at 23.3% occupancy and $250. Within the week, Saturday runs about 42% above the average week on occupancy while Monday runs about 25% below, so weekend-heavy demand is the pattern to price against.

Is a lake property outside Milwaukee worth more than a city one?

On revenue, usually yes. The median listing in Fontana-on-Geneva Lake earned $54,087 over the twelve months to August 2026 and Lake Geneva $43,223, against $22,782 inside the City of Milwaukee. Those are seasonal businesses with different purchase prices, higher carrying costs and a demand curve that collapses after October, so compare them on gross yield and winter cash flow rather than on the revenue line alone.