Wisconsin city guide
Moving From California to Green Bay, WI
Wisconsin's third largest city and the cheapest real housing market among the state's larger metros, built on a stable manufacturing and paper-industry base.
Housing comparison
California versus Green Bay, side by side
- Median home value
- $725,800
- $207,200
- Median annual property tax
- $5,114
- not available
- Median monthly cost, owners with a mortgage
- $2,844
- not available
- Population
- 39.0 million (state)
- 106,253
Figures are US Census Bureau American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates for the city place. Property tax and monthly cost rows cover owner-occupied units with a mortgage, so they describe what current owners pay, not what a new buyer would pay at today's prices. California column is the statewide baseline used across this site.
Why Californians look at Green Bay
Green Bay sits at the mouth of the Fox River on the bay of Green Bay, an arm of Lake Michigan, in northeastern Wisconsin. It is best known nationally as home to the Green Bay Packers, but locally it functions as the region's commercial and medical hub for a large swath of northeastern Wisconsin.
The city's economy has long been built on paper manufacturing and food processing, industries that have consolidated over the decades but still anchor a large share of local employment, supplemented by a growing healthcare and logistics sector.
For a California buyer, Green Bay offers the lowest home values among the state's larger cities, a full range of retail, hospital, and educational services, and a cost of living well below the national average, at the cost of a narrower and more manufacturing-dependent job market than Madison or the Milwaukee suburbs.
Green Bay fits you if
- You want the lowest home prices among Wisconsin's larger cities with full urban services.
- You are retiring or bringing remote income and do not need the local job market to perform.
- You want a regional hospital system, a four-year university, and a full range of retail in one city.
- You are drawn to a strong sense of local identity and community built in part around the Packers and Lambeau Field.
Look elsewhere if
- You need a deep, diverse white-collar job market. Green Bay's economy leans on manufacturing and food processing.
- You need frequent nonstop flights to distant destinations. Green Bay's airport has limited routes.
- You want mild winters. Lake-effect snow off Green Bay adds to already cold, snowy Wisconsin winters.
- You want a large, high-end restaurant and cultural scene comparable to a bigger metro.
Housing in Green Bay
Green Bay's housing stock includes an older east-side and west-side core with homes dating to the early twentieth century, mid-century neighborhoods filling out the middle of the city, and newer development in outlying areas and suburbs like Ashwaubenon, Bellevue, and Howard.
The ACS median home value for the city is $207,200, the lowest among the state's larger cities and a small fraction of the California statewide median. Population has grown modestly, supported in part by the surrounding metro's continued expansion.
Inventory is broad relative to demand, and a California buyer arriving with meaningful equity from a home sale can typically buy outright or with a very small mortgage.
Work and the local economy
Paper manufacturing has defined Green Bay's economy for more than a century, and companies including Georgia-Pacific and Green Bay Packaging remain major employers, alongside food processing firms such as American Foods Group and Schreiber Foods.
Healthcare is a growing pillar, led by Bellin Health and Prevea Health working with HSHS St. Vincent Hospital, and the city also serves as a regional retail and logistics hub for a large rural trade area in northeastern Wisconsin.
The Green Bay Packers and Lambeau Field are themselves a modest but real economic driver through tourism, game-day spending, and a global brand that supports local hospitality. Outside those sectors, the private-sector job market is narrower than in Madison or the Milwaukee metro.
Climate and setting
Green Bay sits on the bay of Green Bay, an arm of Lake Michigan, in northeastern Wisconsin, which exposes the city to lake-effect snow bands in addition to standard Upper Midwest winter systems.
Winters are cold and snowy from November through March, with the lake's influence adding to total snowfall compared to inland Wisconsin cities, and games at Lambeau Field are famously played in sub-freezing and sometimes sub-zero conditions.
Summers are warm and humid with regular thunderstorms, and the bay and surrounding rivers support boating and fishing through the warmer months.
Getting around, care, and schools
- Commercial air
- Green Bay-Austin Straubel International Airport (GRB) offers direct service to a handful of major hubs.
- Highways
- Interstate 43 and US 41 both run through the city, connecting south to Milwaukee and Chicago.
- Hospital
- HSHS St. Vincent Hospital and Bellin Hospital, both major regional medical centers.
- Public schools
- Green Bay Area Public School District.
- Higher education
- University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
- Setting
- At the mouth of the Fox River on the bay of Green Bay, an arm of Lake Michigan.
The trade-offs
- The local economy leans heavily on manufacturing and food processing, which is more cyclical than a diversified metro job market.
- Air service is limited to a handful of major hub connections.
- Lake-effect snow adds to an already long, cold Wisconsin winter.
- The city's cultural and dining scene reflects its size and manufacturing base rather than a large metro's variety.
Other Wisconsin towns people compare
Madison
Wisconsin's capital and second largest city, built around the university, state government, and a chain of lakes, and the most expensive housing market in the state.
Waukesha
Milwaukee's western suburb and Waukesha County's seat, with strong schools and quick access to both downtown Milwaukee and the lake country to the west.
Mequon
The premium address on Milwaukee's North Shore, with large lots, top-rated schools, and the highest home values of the metro's suburbs.
Eau Claire
A growing western Wisconsin city built around two rivers, a university, and a nationally known music scene, with Minneapolis-St. Paul about ninety minutes away.
Door County
A peninsula second-home and retirement market on Lake Michigan and Green Bay, with a seasonal tourism economy and pricing that runs well above the rest of rural Wisconsin.
Statewide figures, tax detail, and the full Wisconsin picture are on the Wisconsin page. Compare property, income, and sales tax across all 49 destination states on Taxes, and see where Californians are actually moving on Stats.
Sources
- US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates, table B25077 (median home value), retrieved via Census Reporter, September 3, 2026.
- US Census Bureau, ACS 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates, table B25103 (median real estate taxes paid, owner-occupied units with a mortgage), retrieved September 3, 2026.
- US Census Bureau, ACS 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates, table B25088 (median selected monthly owner costs, owner-occupied units with a mortgage), retrieved September 3, 2026.
- US Census Bureau, ACS 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates, table B01003 (total population), retrieved September 3, 2026.
- US Census Bureau, ACS 2020 to 2024 5-Year Estimates for Green Bay city, Wisconsin, retrieved via datausa.io.
- Bellin Health and HSHS St. Vincent Hospital, bellin.org and hshs.org.
- Green Bay-Austin Straubel International Airport flight information, flygrb.com.
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