Buying a Home in the Green Bay, WI Area: Both Banks of the Fox, De Pere, Ashwaubenon, Howard-Suamico and the Bay Shore Out to Oconto and Kewaunee

A church picnic around Green Bay comes with a kettle of booyah. It is a thick stew of chicken, beef, pork and vegetables, cooked in very large kettles and ladled out at parish picnics, school fundraisers and community events across northeastern Wisconsin. Belgian immigrants brought it with them from the 1850s on, and the name most likely began as the French word bouillon, written down the way it sounded by a reporter who did not speak French (WBAY, January 8, 2026). Those same Belgian families built about twenty-six small roadside chapels on the back roads of Brown, Kewaunee and Door counties, most of them in the second half of the 1800s. They left the chapels open to anyone passing by (Belgian Heritage Center). A few miles in from those chapels is Lambeau Field, in the Village of Ashwaubenon, just outside the Green Bay city limits.

I'm Jeff Moran, NMLS #483943, a mortgage broker with C2 Financial Corporation, licensed in Wisconsin and in the business since 1996. I work from Bluffton, South Carolina, and I put this page together for anyone weighing a home somewhere around Green Bay. The Green Bay area is the City of Green Bay on both banks of the Fox River, the ring of villages and cities around it, and two rural shoreline counties, Oconto on the bay and Kewaunee on Lake Michigan. The ring is De Pere, Ashwaubenon, Allouez, Bellevue, Howard, Suamico, Hobart and Ledgeview. Brown County holds about 82 percent of the metro's 334,697 people, so most of what follows is about Brown County (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024). I'll take you down the Fox River first, then around the ring, then out to the two shoreline counties. After that come the roads, the schools, the hospitals, and the things I'd look up on any address before you compare it with another one. If you are moving here for a job, this is the lay of the land I'd want you to have before we sit down with the numbers. Every fact here comes from a public source, cited beside the ones that matter most, and the research behind it was done in late September 2026.

The Fox River, the bay and the bridges that open

The Fox River runs south to north through De Pere and Green Bay and empties into the bay of Green Bay, a long arm of Lake Michigan (Green Bay (Lake Michigan)). Downtown is on both banks. The Broadway District is on the west bank, and Olde Main Street and CityDeck are on the east. CityDeck is a boardwalk with platforms out over the water between the Walnut Street bridge and the Ray Nitschke Memorial Bridge (Downtown Green Bay). Three of the downtown bridges are movable. The Walnut Street Bridge carries WIS 29, the Main Street Bridge carries US 141 and the Mason Street Bridge carries WIS 54, and all three open for boats. WisDOT is upgrading the control systems on all three in 2026, and the work is on the 511WI construction advisory for the region (511WI, Northeast Region 2026 construction advisory). If your commute crosses the river downtown, a raised bridge is part of life here, and which side of the Fox you live on decides how often you meet one.

The city has run Bay Beach Amusement Park on the bayfront since 1892, and the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary next to it keeps about 6.5 miles of walking and cross-country ski trails (City of Green Bay; City of Green Bay). The Saturday Farmers Market closes South Washington and Doty streets downtown and is past its hundredth season, with more than 100 vendors, and the 2026 season runs through October 31 (Downtown Green Bay). The Fox River State Recreational Trail starts at CityDeck and runs about 26 miles south through De Pere and Wrightstown, paved for the first twelve (Brown County Parks). If you like to ride or run from your front door, a home near the river between downtown and De Pere puts that trail within reach.

The Shipyard and the apartments going up downtown

On the near west side, the Shipyard District is a Fox River redevelopment that the city is building in phases. Phase I finished in October 2024 with a riverfront promenade, a floating dock, a fishing pier and a kayak launch. Phase II broke ground in September 2026. It is a public park with a great lawn, an urban beach, a dog park, a splash pad, lit volleyball courts and a shipping-crane-themed playground, and a riverfront container bar is set to open in 2027. A third phase, with shipping containers for seasonal businesses, has no timeline yet (WBAY, September 21, 2026; Fox 11). If you are looking at the Broadway District side of downtown, this is the park that will be taking shape along the river over the next two years.

Downtown had more than 450 residential units under construction in April 2026 (Spectrum News 1, April 2, 2026). NOVA Green Bay is an eight-story building of about 269 apartments by Milwaukee-based New Land Enterprises. Skyline@425 is the former U.S. Bank tower, converted to 66 apartments. On the 200 block of North Monroe Street, the council approved a 2.5-acre site for a mixed-use project with 168 residential units (Planetizen, May 2026). Most of that is rental, so if you plan to rent downtown while you look, those are the buildings you would be looking at.

Green Bay rewrote its zoning code for housing in January 2026

In January 2026 the Common Council approved a set of zoning changes aimed at housing. Accessory dwelling units are now allowed in every residential district with a conditional use permit. A duplex is allowed in areas that were zoned for single-family homes only. Three- and four-unit buildings are allowed in traditional single-family districts with a conditional use permit. Taller buildings are allowed in the higher-density districts, minimum lot sizes went down, and housing is allowed in commercial districts (WBAY, January 6, 2026; WPR). An accessory dwelling unit is a second, smaller home on the same lot, such as a backyard cottage or a basement apartment. A conditional use permit is a permit the city grants case by case after a public review, so "allowed with a permit" means you apply and the Plan Commission decides. If you are buying in the city with a plan to add a unit, the city's planning office can tell you what the new code allows at that address. The same office can tell you what could be built on the lot next door, and I'd ask that question too before you fall in love with a view.

Around the ring, one place at a time

De Pere, one city with two sides

In 1671 the French Jesuit Père Claude-Jean Allouez founded the St. Francis Xavier Mission at the last rapids on the Fox River before the bay. The French called the spot Rapides des Pères, the rapids of the fathers, and that became De Pere (City of De Pere; Wikipedia: De Pere). De Pere was originally the east bank only. The City of West De Pere joined it in 1890, and the two sides kept their own traditions. They are still served by two separate school districts: the Unified School District of De Pere on the east bank and the School District of West De Pere on the west bank (Fox 11). So on a De Pere address, the Fox River is the school district boundary, and which bank the home is on decides which district your kids attend. The Claude Allouez Bridge joins the two sides, and St. Norbert College has stood on the west bank near the bridge since 1898 (Wikipedia: St. Norbert College). Downtown De Pere has its own farmers market on Thursdays at George Street Plaza beside the river, from late June into early October (Downtown De Pere). The South Bridge Connector, the biggest road project in the metro after I-41, is being built here, and I go through it in the roads section below.

Ashwaubenon, where Lambeau Field is

Lambeau Field is in the Village of Ashwaubenon, outside the city limits of Green Bay. The Titletown District is the Packers' own development on about 34 acres right west of the stadium. It holds Lodge Kohler, a Bellin sports medicine clinic and the Hinterland restaurant and brewery. About 10 acres of it is public space, with a skating rink, a football field, a tubing hill and a giant replica Super Bowl ring (Titletown; Packers.com). The Packers have described a next phase of as many as 150 apartments in a five-story building, and no date has been set for it. Across from the stadium, Resch Expo opened in January 2021 with 125,000 square feet of exhibit space (WFRV). Bay Park Square, the metro's enclosed mall, is on Oneida Street about a mile south of Lambeau (Wikipedia: Bay Park Square). Ashwaubomay Park, 84 acres above the Fox, has a three-million-gallon man-made lake with a sand beach and a diving platform (Village of Ashwaubenon). If you are looking at a home near the stadium, I'd ask the seller what a home-game Sunday looks like on that block, because you will be living with that schedule.

Allouez and the prison on the river

Heritage Hill State Historical Park, 56 acres on South Webster Avenue, holds 26 historic and reproduction buildings, most of them moved there from other sites (Heritage Hill). Allouez is also home to Green Bay Correctional Institution, a maximum-security state prison, and the state has been working toward closing it. A draft corrections package would rebuild or reconfigure seven institutions and keep GBCI open until at least 2031. In September 2026, State Rep. Ben Franklin shared an updated plan for a bill that would set closure four years after signing. If the legislature passes it after it returns in January, that lands in early 2031 (Correctional News, September 7, 2026; WBAY, September 2, 2026). The village would like to see the roughly 64-acre site become retail, housing, commercial and entertainment uses, and the land belongs to the state (NBC 26). If you are looking at a home near the site, nothing on that land changes before the state lets go of it, and the earliest date anyone has put on that is 2031. The village's own announcements are where I'd follow it.

Bellevue

Bellevue is one of the ring villages, and US 141 runs through it. WisDOT is resurfacing US 141 through the village in 2026, so if that is your route in and out, the village posts the closures on its own site (Village of Bellevue). Josten Park on Town Hall Road is the big village park, 35 acres with shelters, a nature trail, youth ball diamonds and soccer fields, and the village also runs a dog park on Bellevue Street (Village of Bellevue).

Howard and Suamico

Howard borders the City of Green Bay, Hobart, Suamico and more than three miles of the bay shoreline (Village of Howard). The I-41 and I-43 interchange is in Howard, so if you commute by interstate you start from inside the village (Green Bay Press-Gazette via Yahoo). Duck Creek Quarry Beach is a limestone quarry that was worked from 1827 until 2001, filled from the aquifer, and opened for limited swimming in 2015 (Village of Howard). In Suamico, the NEW Zoo & Adventure Park and the Brown County Reforestation Camp together make up a 1,600-acre recreation area that draws more than half a million visits a year (Brown County Parks). The L.H. Barkhausen Waterfowl Preserve, 473 acres on the west shore of the bay, is having its nature center remodeled in 2026 (Brown County Parks). The two villages share the Howard-Suamico School District, and its April 2026 referendum is in the schools section, because it reaches the tax bill on every home in both villages.

Hobart and the Oneida Nation trust land

The Village of Hobart is inside the Oneida Nation reservation, which also covers parts of the west side of the City of Green Bay. The Nation has been buying back reservation land and placing it in federal trust under the Indian Reorganization Act, and land held in trust cannot be taxed by the village. The Department of the Interior took 21 parcels, nearly 500 acres, into trust for the Nation. Hobart sued in 2023, Federal Judge William Griesbach ruled against the village in December 2025, and Hobart filed its appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on January 30, 2026. Oral argument is scheduled for October 30, 2026 (WBAY, January 30, 2026; Duke FM, September 14, 2026; WPR). If you are buying a specific home in Hobart or on Green Bay's west side, the Brown County property records and your title commitment will show whether that one parcel is held in trust. The title commitment is the report the title company issues before closing, listing who owns the parcel and everything recorded against it. The court case does not change the answer on a parcel that is not in trust.

Ledgeview and the escarpment

East and south of De Pere the land rises onto the Niagara Escarpment, the same ridge of dolomite that runs under Niagara Falls. Fonferek's Glen, a 74-acre county park on Dutchman Road in Ledgeview, has a thirty-foot waterfall, dolomite cliffs and a natural stone arch (Brown County Parks). Up the east shore, Wequiock Falls off State Highway 57 exposes the same escarpment in a ravine, and Brown County won a Wisconsin Coastal Management Grant in 2026 to replace its viewing platforms and rebuild its stairs (Brown County Parks). Bay Shore Park near New Franken is on top of the escarpment above the bay, with a campground (Brown County Parks). If you are drawn to this side of the metro, you'll be up on the ridge, and if the home is outside a municipal water system the well notes in the homework section apply to it.

Oconto County, up the west shore

Oconto County has 40,037 people and runs north from Brown County along the bay (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024). Copper Culture State Park covers 42 acres on the Oconto River at the edge of the city of Oconto. In the city itself, Holtwood Park runs 4,000 feet of river frontage with a boat launch, and Oconto City Park has 700 feet of bay waterfront with a sand beach (Wisconsin DNR; City of Oconto). The City of Oconto promoted a waterfront development site in April 2026 (City of Oconto). The county's Zoning and Shoreland Ordinance covers recreational vehicles and camping units, and the county took up changes to those standards in February 2026 (Oconto County). If you want to park or live in an RV on a lot you buy up here, the county zoning office has the adopted text, and I'd want to read it with you before you write an offer.

Kewaunee County, over on Lake Michigan

Kewaunee County has 20,751 people and is on the Lake Michigan side, at the base of the Door peninsula (U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2024). The Belgian families from the opening of this page settled here. Belgians began arriving in 1853, and by 1860 Wisconsin had more than 4,600 Belgian settlers, mostly in Brown, Kewaunee and Door counties (Wikipedia: Namur Historic District; SAH Archipedia). The Ahnapee State Trail follows an old rail line for 48 miles, linking Kewaunee, Casco, Luxemburg, Algoma and Sturgeon Bay. Winter Park outside Kewaunee runs five tubing runs and five ski and snowboard runs with lifts (Wisconsin DNR; Kewaunee County). A boardwalk runs the length of Crescent Beach in Algoma (Travel Wisconsin).

The Kewaunee Power Station in the Town of Carlton shut down in 2013. Its owner, EnergySolutions, sent the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission a notice of intent on January 15, 2026. It says the company plans to file for a major licensing action for new nuclear generation at the site by June 2028, with WEC Energy Group as a partner. If it goes ahead, construction could begin in the early 2030s and a plant could come online in 2038 or 2039 (The Daily Reporter, January 29, 2026; Spectrum News 1, May 15, 2026). That is a filing and a plan more than a decade out, and nothing is under construction. If the home you are looking at here is outside a municipal water system, it is on a private well, and I go through what that means in this county in the homework section below.

I-41, the South Bridge and your flight home

I-41 from Appleton to De Pere. WisDOT is rebuilding 23 miles of I-41 from four lanes to six, from WIS 96 in Appleton to County F, which is Scheuring Road, in De Pere. 2026 is a bridge-and-interchange year, with a new De Pere bridge in full construction from spring, and the whole project finishes in 2030 (I-41 Project, WisDOT; The Daily Reporter, April 6, 2026). If you will commute between De Pere and the Fox Cities, that is four more years of lane shifts.

The South Bridge Connector in De Pere. This is a new Fox River crossing south of the city, decades in the making. The scope includes a roundabout connecting County Highway F to Lawrence Drive on the east side, and extending County Highway GV from French Road to Lawrence Drive. Two completion dates are in circulation. Officials said the South Bridge Interchange portion stays on schedule for the end of 2026, while other coverage puts the bridge itself in 2027 (Fox 11; Brown County Planning). If you are looking at a home on either side of the river south of De Pere, the county planning page is the place to watch, because a new crossing changes how you get to work.

Austin Straubel International Airport. For the 2026 Packers home season, Delta added special round trips from Atlanta, Detroit, Boston, Minneapolis and Buffalo, and American added Dallas-Fort Worth, Charlotte, Buffalo and Houston. Nonstops from LaGuardia and Reagan National were added for the Wisconsin-Notre Dame game at Lambeau in September (WisBusiness; Fox 11). Those are one-off game flights. If you are relocating from one of those cities, the airport's own site, flygrb.com, lists the year-round nonstops, and that is the schedule you would fly the rest of the year.

The school buildings and the referendums

Green Bay Area Public Schools has an operational referendum on the November 3, 2026 ballot. It is a four-year, non-recurring question, which means the district can collect the extra property tax for four years and then has to go back to voters. The district cites an expiring prior referendum, declining enrollment, inflation and a state funding gap. WBAY reported the ask at $154 million in July, and later coverage put it at $158 million (WBAY, July 14, 2026; Fox 11). The same district is consolidating three west-side elementary schools into one new single-story building next to the current Kennedy Elementary site for the 2026-27 school year. That building is the centerpiece of a $183 million capital referendum that 66 percent of voters approved in 2024 (GBAPS).

Howard-Suamico voters approved a referendum on April 7, 2026, with about 55.5 percent voting yes on $147 million in debt for facilities. The scope is an addition, renovations and site work at Bay Port High School, including expanded career and technical education space and science-lab renovations. It also covers additions and renovations at Howard, Meadowbrook, Suamico and Lineville schools and capital maintenance at Bay Harbor School (Howard-Suamico School District). The Unified School District of De Pere passed a $22 million critical-maintenance referendum in 2024 and has said it still faces crowded schools and a 50-year-old high school building. Its board was set to hear the superintendent's recommendation on a further referendum in September 2026 (WBAY, September 14, 2026).

A school referendum lands on the property tax bill of every home in that district, and in Wisconsin the Lottery and Gaming Credit on that bill is figured from the school tax rate. So the district a home is in moves two lines on your December bill. The districts publish their own attendance maps, and that map is where I'd confirm the district for any address. In De Pere the Fox River is the boundary, and on the edges of Green Bay a city address can be in a neighboring district.

Three hospital systems

The three systems you will hear named are Emplify Health, HSHS St. Vincent and Aurora BayCare. Emplify Health formed when Bellin Health of Green Bay and Gundersen Health System of La Crosse combined. It is a not-for-profit headquartered in Green Bay and La Crosse, with 11 hospitals and more than 100 clinics across Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and its Green Bay hospital is the former Bellin Hospital (Emplify Health). HSHS St. Vincent Hospital is part of Hospital Sisters Health System, has served northeastern Wisconsin and the U.P. since 1888, and has a children's hospital (HSHS St. Vincent). Aurora BayCare Medical Center is a 167-bed hospital that is part of Advocate Health (Aurora BayCare). Your health plan's directory will tell you which of the three it covers, and the drive from a given address to each emergency room is worth checking before you compare two homes.

Paper, trucking and the Packers

Paper mills lined the Fox River, and the Georgia-Pacific Broadway mill still stands on the west bank in Green Bay. The PCB cleanup in the homework section below traces back to those mills. PCBs are polychlorinated biphenyls, a family of industrial chemicals the mills released into the river for years. Schneider National, the trucking company, is headquartered in Green Bay. The Green Bay Packers are an employer here and the developer of Titletown. The three hospital systems above are large employers too. In August 2026, Associated Bank committed $150,000 over three years to NeighborWorks Green Bay for homeownership education, down payment help and workforce development (WTAQ, August 21, 2026). If you are relocating for a job here and your start date is near your closing date, please tell me early, because the way your income gets documented depends on the timing. For a veteran settling anywhere in the three counties, how VA loans work in Wisconsin covers entitlement and the funding fee.

Green Bay is three things, and other address questions

Green Bay is the city, the bay, and a separate Town of Green Bay out in Brown County (Wikipedia: Town of Green Bay). Lambeau Field is in Ashwaubenon. The West Side and the East Side mean the two halves of De Pere, split by the Fox River and joined in 1890. Inside the City of Green Bay the same two names mean different ground, so please ask which city someone means. Every Wisconsin address is inside a county, a municipality and a school district, and each of the three puts its own levy on the tax bill. A levy is the total dollar amount a government decides to collect from its property owners for the year. The Brown County property records show which municipality a parcel is in, and the district maps show the school district. In Hobart and on Green Bay's west side, those same records and your title commitment show whether a specific parcel is held in federal trust for the Oneida Nation.

A street assessment, and reading a Brown County tax bill

The City of Green Bay's ordinance has long required property owners to pay toward the reconstruction of the street in front of their property. The charge is figured on the frontage, the number of feet the lot runs along the road. A special assessment is a one-time charge for a public improvement that benefits the property, billed to the owner on top of the regular tax bill. The city's Department of Public Works publishes the current per-foot rate in its DPW Information Guide. A public information meeting on the design and a public hearing on the assessments both come before the construction contract is awarded (City of Green Bay, DPW Information Guide). On any city address, you'll want to ask whether a street reconstruction is scheduled for that block, and whether an assessment has already been billed to the property. The seller's Real Estate Condition Report and the city engineer's office answer both, and I'm happy to go over the answers with you.

Brown County set its 2026 mill rate at $2.66 per $1,000 of value, down from $2.80, and described it as the lowest county rate on record, on a county levy of $96.25 million (Fox 11). A mill is one dollar of tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. That rate is the county's share only. A Wisconsin bill stacks the county, the municipality, the school district, the technical college and a state line, so the county's record low tells you about one line of five. Wisconsin requires assessment at least once every four years, and assessed values track market value most closely right after a revaluation (Brown County Treasurer). The City of Green Bay keeps a city-wide revaluation page, and the assessor's office can tell you which assessment year the city is on now (City of Green Bay). A higher assessment after a revaluation does not by itself raise your bill. Each government spreads its levy across all the assessed value in its area, so your share moves with two things: how your home's value changed compared with everyone else's, and whether the levies themselves went up.

Wisconsin bills property tax in arrears, so the bill that arrives in December pays for the year that is ending. Municipalities that offer installments split it into payments due January 31 and July 31. The Lottery and Gaming Credit comes off the bill on the home you live in as your primary residence on January 1, and the First Dollar Credit comes off every parcel with a building on it. I go through both on the Wisconsin Lottery and Gaming Credit page and in more detail on the Milwaukee area page, and they work the same way in Brown, Oconto and Kewaunee counties. If the seller's bill shows the lottery credit and you plan to use the home as something other than your primary residence, please tell me, because your bill will not have it.

Sales tax here is 5.5 percent, the state's 5 percent plus Brown County's 0.5 percent. The county's half percent was set to end in 2023, and the County Board extended it until the county's debt is paid off, expected around 2037. It has paid for a new STEM building at UW-Green Bay, a new jail pod and road repairs (Fox 11).

The East River, ice jams, wells, radon and snow

Flood. High water in the bay backs into the Fox River, the East River, Mahon Creek and the smaller creeks, according to the City of Green Bay's floodplain management page. Intense rain, fast snowmelt and ice dams add to it. Ice jams can flood areas that normally do not flood (City of Green Bay, Floodplain Management). The East River runs 42.4 miles from near Askeaton in southern Brown County north through the east side of De Pere, Allouez and Green Bay before it meets the Fox in the city (Wikipedia: East River). So it passes through the east-side neighborhoods of all three, and a home near its banks is where the flood map and the flood insurance question come up. Brown County's current FEMA flood maps were adopted February 15, 2023 and took effect May 9, 2023 (Brown County Zoning). A lender requires flood insurance when a home is in FEMA's high-risk zones, A or AE, and that premium goes into your monthly payment. If you are looking at a home along the East River, Baird Creek or the lower Fox, I'd pull the current map before the offer. I'd also read the seller's Real Estate Condition Report with you, because that is where the seller answers whether water has come into the basement.

Wells. Roughly 70 percent of Kewaunee County relies on groundwater for drinking water, and the county's fractured bedrock, called karst, carries water and anything in it straight down from the surface through vertical cracks (Kewaunee County Land & Water Conservation). On a private well anywhere in Kewaunee County, or in rural Oconto or Brown County, a water test is part of the inspection. The Wisconsin DNR recommends testing every year for bacteria and nitrate, nitrate is the most common groundwater contaminant in the state, and the drinking water limit is 10 milligrams per liter (Wisconsin DNR). The county conservation office publishes what to test for. I go through what a lender needs on a well in a well inspection before you buy in Wisconsin.

Radon. Wisconsin DHS says one in ten Wisconsin homes has elevated radon, and the EPA action level is 4 picocuries per liter (Wisconsin DHS). In September 2025, Brown County Public Health began offering free test kits to county residents while supplies last, picked up at the Duck Creek Center or the Sophie Beaumont Building (WBAY, September 17, 2025). Please check with the health department whether kits are still available this year. A radon test at the time of sale is a small step, and I'd include it in the inspection on any home here.

Snow. Green Bay averages 55.6 inches of snow a year on the 1991 to 2020 normals, and January is the snowiest month at more than 14 inches (NWS Green Bay). So at a showing in July, the driveway, the roof and the garage are worth a look with January in mind. The weather risks insurers price here are hail, wind and winter storms, so the homeowners quote on the specific home is the number to have before you make an offer.

The river itself. From the mid-1950s to 1971, paper mills released nearly 700,000 pounds of PCBs into the Lower Fox River. The cleanup took 17 years, covered 39 miles of the river and the bay, removed 6.5 million cubic yards of contaminated sediment, and finished its active work in 2020. EPA certified it complete in October 2022 and Wisconsin followed in early 2023. PCB levels in the river water are down about 90 percent since 2006. PCBs in fish have fallen about 75 percent and are expected to keep dropping over the next 10 to 20 years, so the fish consumption advisories are still in place while that happens (EPA; Wisconsin DNR).

Condos and associations. A condominium in one of the downtown buildings or along the Fox runs under Wisconsin Statutes chapter 703, which requires resale disclosure documents. A detached home in one of the newer subdivisions in Howard, Suamico, Bellevue or Ledgeview with a homeowners association runs on its own recorded covenants, with no equivalent packet. Please ask for the covenants and the current budget directly, because the dues are part of the payment a lender qualifies you on, and I'll want the figure from the association's own documents.

Help with a down payment

WHEDA, the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority, pairs its first mortgages with down payment products called Easy Close and Capital Access. NeighborWorks Green Bay offers homebuyer education along with down payment and closing-cost help across most of Brown County (WHEDA; NeighborWorks Green Bay). The terms of both change, so please confirm the current ones with each program before you count on either, and I'm glad to look at them with you.

The loan limits here

The 2026 conforming and FHA limits for Brown, Oconto and Kewaunee counties are in the box below this article, and all three counties have the same figures. HUD sets a lowest FHA loan limit that applies anywhere in the country, and every county here is at that floor. The Wisconsin REALTORS Association's August 2026 report put the statewide median sale price at $362,000 (WBAY, September 24, 2026), and the one-unit FHA limit is well above that. The conforming limit is the largest loan Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac will buy in a county, and a loan above it is called a jumbo loan. The REALTORS Association of Northeast Wisconsin publishes the local price reports, and I'd use those for any town-level figure.

Taxes, insurance and any association dues are all part of the monthly payment a lender qualifies you on. So the municipality and the school district, the lottery credit, a street assessment on the block, a flood quote on a home near the East River and the homeowners quote all feed straight into that number. Pre-approval in Wisconsin covers what the letter is based on, and the Wisconsin page covers the WB-11 offer form, the Real Estate Condition Report, title insurance and the seller-paid transfer fee. If you are also looking at the other end of the state, the Madison area page is written the same way.

You can see your rate options for a purchase in Brown, Oconto or Kewaunee County any time you're ready. You get pricing for your own scenario and Wisconsin closing costs, with no credit pull and no account to set up. Choose the option that works best for you, and the application opens from there. The selection can change later, so pick the one that fits today.

Nothing here is a loan approval, a denial or a commitment to lend, and it is not tax advice. The assessed value of a specific home, a street assessment on its block and the credits on its bill are set by the municipality and the county treasurer, so please confirm them with those offices.

Common questions

Is Lambeau Field in Green Bay?

Lambeau Field is in the Village of Ashwaubenon, just outside the city limits of Green Bay. The Titletown District, Resch Expo and Bay Park Square are in Ashwaubenon too. A home with a Green Bay mailing address can be in the city, in Ashwaubenon, in another village, or in the separate Town of Green Bay, and the Brown County property records show which one.

Which school district is a De Pere home in?

The Fox River is the boundary. The east bank is the Unified School District of De Pere and the west bank is the School District of West De Pere. The two districts have served the two sides since the City of West De Pere joined De Pere in 1890. The district maps confirm it for a specific address.

What is a special assessment in Green Bay?

It is a one-time charge the City of Green Bay bills a property owner for reconstructing the street in front of the property, figured on the lot's frontage along the road. The city publishes the current per-foot rate in its DPW Information Guide, and a public information meeting and a public hearing come before the work is awarded. On any city address, you'll want to ask whether a street project is scheduled on that block and whether the assessment has already been billed.

Does the East River flood?

The City of Green Bay names the East River, along with the Fox River, Mahon Creek and Baird Creek, as places where major flooding can occur. It usually happens when high water in the bay backs up the rivers or when ice jams form. The East River runs through the east side of De Pere, Allouez and Green Bay. Brown County's current FEMA flood maps took effect May 9, 2023, and a lender requires flood insurance on a home in zone A or AE.

Do I need to test the well on a Kewaunee County home?

Yes, as part of your inspection. About 70 percent of Kewaunee County drinks groundwater, and the county's karst bedrock lets surface water move straight down through cracks. The Wisconsin DNR recommends testing every year for bacteria and nitrate, and the county's Land & Water Conservation department publishes what to test for.

Is there a school referendum on the ballot in Green Bay?

Yes. Green Bay Area Public Schools has a four-year, non-recurring operational referendum on the November 3, 2026 ballot. Howard-Suamico voters approved a facilities referendum on April 7, 2026, and the Unified School District of De Pere has been weighing another one. A referendum that passes shows up on the December tax bill of every home in that district.

When does I-41 finish between Appleton and De Pere?

WisDOT's schedule has the 23-mile widening from four lanes to six, from WIS 96 in Appleton to County F in De Pere, finishing in 2030. 2026 is a bridge-and-interchange year, with a new De Pere bridge in full construction.

What did Green Bay's 2026 zoning changes allow?

In January 2026 the Common Council allowed accessory dwelling units in all residential districts with a conditional use permit, and duplexes where only single-family homes were allowed before. It also allowed three- and four-unit buildings in traditional single-family districts with a conditional use permit, taller buildings in higher-density districts, smaller minimum lot sizes and housing in commercial districts. The city's planning office can tell you what applies to a specific lot.