St. Croix (WI) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

In St. Croix County, investors hold 2,348 Single-Family Residential properties, representing 8.2% of the total 28,718 SFRs in the market.

Individual investors are the backbone of the local rental market, owning 1,561 properties, which accounts for 66.5% of all investor-owned SFRs. Company investors hold the remaining 823 properties, or 35.1% of the portfolio.

The entity landscape further underscores the dominance of small-scale investors. There are 1,881 individual landlords compared to only 408 company landlords, a ratio of more than 4.6 to 1.

A significant portion of the investor portfolio is held without financing. Landlords own 1,604 properties with cash, more than double the 744 properties that are financed, signaling a financially stable and low-leverage investor base in the county.

The primary purpose of these holdings is clear, with 2,241 properties identified as rented, confirming the rental-focused nature of the vast majority of the investor-owned housing stock.

In Q4 2025, landlords in St. Croix County demonstrated a strong purchasing advantage, acquiring properties for an average price of $377,667. This was 17.8% less than the $459,506 paid by traditional homeowners, translating to a substantial average discount of $81,839 per property.

While the Q4 discount is significant, it represents a narrowing of the price gap observed earlier in the year. The landlord discount was substantially wider in previous quarters, peaking at an extraordinary 37.8% in Q2 2025 ($175,810 difference) and standing at 21.0% in Q3 2025 ($97,379 difference).

This trend of a shrinking discount suggests that the market may be becoming more competitive for investors or that the composition of properties being purchased has shifted towards higher-priced assets in the latter half of the year.

Despite a year-over-year increase in prices for all buyers, landlord acquisition prices in 2025 ($338,426) actually decreased compared to their 2024 average ($355,482), indicating a strategic shift towards lower-cost properties.

The price appreciation from the 2020-2023 boom era is evident, with the average landlord acquisition price rising from $297,256 during that period to $377,667 in Q4 2025, an increase of over $80,000.

Landlord acquisition activity in St. Croix County was minimal in Q4 2025, with investors purchasing only 6 of the 270 total SFRs sold, a market share of just 2.2%. This muted activity highlights a significant slowdown in investor buying.

The entirety of this purchasing activity came from mom-and-pop investors (1-10 properties), who acquired 100% of the 6 properties. Institutional investors (1,000+ properties) were completely absent from the market, making no purchases during the quarter.

New entrants continue to form the core of investor demand. Four of the six acquisitions (66.7%) were made by new single-property landlords, indicating that the market continues to attract first-time investors despite the overall slowdown.

The remaining Q4 activity was split between a two-property landlord and a small landlord in the 3-5 property tier, each purchasing a single property.

This concentration of activity exclusively within the smallest investor tiers underscores the grassroots, small-scale nature of the St. Croix County rental market, with no influence from mid-size or large-scale investors in the current quarter.

The investor landscape in St. Croix County is overwhelmingly dominated by small-scale operators. Mom-and-pop landlords, who own between 1 and 10 properties, control a combined 83.3% of all investor-owned SFRs.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) are the largest single group, holding 1,399 properties, which constitutes a 57.7% majority share of the entire investor-owned housing stock. This highlights the critical role of first-time and small landlords in the local market.

Mid-size investors (11-100 properties) represent a smaller but notable segment, collectively owning 16.4% of the portfolio. This group includes small-medium landlords with 125 properties (5.2%), another tier with 117 properties (4.8%), and medium-large investors with 156 properties (6.4%).

The presence of large-scale investors is negligible. Large landlords (101-1,000 properties) own just 3 properties (0.1%), and institutional investors (1,000+ properties) hold only 4 properties, representing a mere 0.2% of the market.

This distribution definitively shows that the narrative of large corporate landlords dominating the housing market does not apply in St. Croix County; instead, it is a market defined by thousands of individual and small-scale investors.

A distinct crossover point occurs in investor portfolios as they grow: while individuals dominate smaller tiers, companies become the majority owners starting in the 6-10 property tier.

In the smallest tiers, individual ownership is overwhelming. Individuals own 82.2% of single-property portfolios, 60.5% of two-property portfolios, and 64.9% of portfolios with 3-5 properties.

The transition to corporate ownership begins decisively in the 6-10 property tier, where companies own 107 properties, a 64.1% majority share. This indicates that as investors scale beyond five properties, they are more likely to incorporate.

Company dominance becomes even more pronounced in the small-medium tiers. Companies own 94.4% of properties in the 11-20 tier and 81.2% in the 21-50 tier, showing a clear preference for a corporate structure at this scale.

Interestingly, in the 51-100 property tier, ownership flips back to a slight individual majority at 51.3%, an anomaly that suggests a pocket of larger, long-term individual holders in the county.

Geographic analysis reveals specific hotspots of investor ownership within St. Croix County. The zip code 54016 is the clear leader by volume, with 883 investor-owned properties, though this represents a modest 8.0% ownership rate for that area.

The areas with the highest investor penetration rates are different from the volume leaders. Zip code 54005 has the highest concentration, with investors owning 22.2% of the housing stock, followed by 54027 (12.7%) and 54013 (11.8%).

This distinction between high-volume and high-penetration areas indicates different market dynamics. High-volume areas like 54016 and 54017 (510 properties) are larger housing markets, while high-penetration areas may be smaller markets with a higher proportion of rental properties.

A significant concentration of ownership exists within a few key areas. The top five zip codes by property count (54016, 54017, 54025, 54022, 54002) collectively account for 1,972 properties, which is over 80% of the entire investor portfolio in the county.

The top region by count, 54016, and the top region by percentage, 54005, are not the same, highlighting the importance of looking at both absolute numbers and ownership rates to understand investor strategy across the county.

A significant market shift occurred in 2025, as landlords in St. Croix County transitioned from net buyers to net sellers. In Q4 2025, landlords sold 21 properties while acquiring only 6, resulting in a net disposition of 15 properties.

This selling trend was consistent throughout the latter half of the year, with Q3 also showing a net seller position (13 buys vs. 18 sells). For the full year of 2025, landlords sold 51 properties and purchased only 37, a net reduction of 14 properties from their portfolios.

This activity marks a stark reversal from the prior year. In 2024, landlords were aggressive accumulators, purchasing 59 properties and selling only 35, for a net gain of 24 properties.

The buy/sell ratio plummeted to just 0.29 in Q4, meaning for every property bought, roughly 3.5 were sold. This is a dramatic drop from the net-positive buying activity seen in 2024.

Institutional investors (1000+ tier) recorded no buy or sell transactions in any recent timeframe, indicating their activity has no impact on the overall market dynamics, which are driven entirely by smaller investors.

The landlord share of market transactions was exceptionally low in Q4 2025, with their 6 purchases representing only 1.4% of the 432 total SFR transactions in St. Croix County. This indicates investors were largely on the sidelines during the quarter.

All transaction activity was confined to mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04), with institutional investors making no purchases. Single-property landlords were the most active, accounting for 4 of the 6 total transactions.

There is evidence of trading within the investor community, even at a small scale. Of the 4 properties purchased by single-property landlords, one (25.0%) was acquired from another landlord, highlighting the role of the existing rental stock in creating opportunities for new entrants.

Purchase prices varied significantly across the active tiers, with no clear correlation between size and price. Single-property landlords paid an average of $388,750, while the single two-property tier purchase was for $456,000, and the lone 3-5 property tier purchase was for a much lower $255,000.

This lack of a clear pricing strategy across tiers suggests that in a low-volume quarter, individual property characteristics and specific deals, rather than broad investor-class strategies, dictate acquisition prices.