Ten vacant units out of roughly 1,200 tracked rentals. That is what Sturgeon Bay planning staff reported on their monthly landlord calls, per Door County Knock, which works out to about 0.8 percent vacancy. For an owner weighing a cash out refinance on an investment property in Door County, Wisconsin, that number reframes the peninsula. The postcard villages draw the attention. The working port town holds the rent roll.
TL;DR: A cash-out file in Door County, Wisconsin is underwritten primarily on the property’s rental income measured against its full monthly obligation, after the seasoning period and an appraisal that sets the value. The sourced local figures below show where that math has room.
DSCR Cash-Out Calculator
Run the cash-out numbers in Door County, WI
Rate source: Freddie Mac 30-yr average via FRED® — Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis · effective Sep 24, 2026
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As of Sep 24, 2026 · General Freddie Mac market benchmark, not a Lendmire loan offer. Property value, balance, taxes, and insurance are editable estimates. Maximum loan-to-value varies by lender, program, property type, and seasoning. Not a Loan Estimate, approval, or commitment to lend. Program availability and eligibility are subject to lender guidelines, credit approval, property review, and underwriting.
- Staff-tracked Sturgeon Bay rentals showed about 0.8 percent vacancy in the latest count cited.
- Cash-out caps at 75 percent LTV, with roughly six months of ownership seasoning.
- Duplexes cover better than single-family homes at similar prices.
- Northern Door waterfront pricing rarely supports 1.00x coverage.
- Appraisals rest on thin comps and skewed averages.
Door County Market Snapshot
A quick read on the Door County investor landscape — figures come from the cited sources below. Confirm current property-level numbers before underwriting.
| Metric | Detail |
|---|---|
| Population | 30,445 population (Census Reporter, Door County) |
| Employment | 3,575 jobs (Door County Pulse, tourism 2025) |
Sturgeon Bay Is Where the Equity Sits
Sturgeon Bay is the strongest cash-out market in the county. It is the only place with year-round rental demand large enough to underwrite.
The county seat had 9,646 residents at the last census, according to the county’s Wikipedia entry, inside a county of 30,445 people per Census Reporter. Price data for the town is messy. Zillow shows an average home value of $321,514, up 7.3 percent over the past year. Homes.com lists a median of $424,900, and Movoto reports a median list price of $522,000 with 136 days on market. Those figures don’t reconcile, and they shouldn’t be forced to. They measure different things (sold versus listed, average versus median). The honest read is a working band of roughly $320,000 to $425,000 for typical product.
Seven percent one-year appreciation is meaningful for an owner who bought a few cycles back. Zillow puts the countywide value at $436,878, up 2.3 percent, against an earlier-cycle county median near $315,000 cited on Wikipedia’s Door County economy page. Comparing a median to an average is imprecise, but the direction is clear: an owner who bought before the run-up likely holds meaningful equity against a 75 percent LTV ceiling. Whether that equity converts to cash depends on the appraisal, the rent, and the reserves. It is never a guaranteed figure.
What Does the Coverage Math Look Like at 75 Percent?
Coverage on Door County product tightens fast as price rises. A duplex in the $420,000 range runs near 0.95x including taxes and insurance at a 75 percent cash-out LTV. A comparable single-family home lands well below that. Those are modeled assumptions, not sourced market facts. They use full PITIA, which means principal, interest, taxes, and insurance.
Start with the rents. ApartmentFinder shows listing averages of $1,363 for a two-bedroom and $1,853 for a three-bedroom in Sturgeon Bay. Homes.com shows five multifamily listings priced from $419,900 to $799,900, mostly duplexes.
Run the numbers on a side-by-side two-bedroom duplex near $420,000. Assume $1,363 per unit, about $2,700 combined. That is roughly 0.65 percent of price per month. A three-bedroom house at a similar price, at $1,853, gross-rents about 0.44 percent. Modeled at 75 percent LTV with a 30-year fixed structure and WI-average taxes and insurance, the duplex lands around 0.95x, and the single-family home lands nearer 0.70x. Dropping the duplex to 65 percent LTV lowers the loan balance and improves coverage. Under these assumptions, a duplex at this price would need a smaller loan, meaning less cash out, to approach the standard 1.00x floor.
| Scenario (modeled) | Rent basis | Coverage at 75% LTV |
|---|---|---|
| Duplex near $420K | ~$2,700 combined | ~0.95x |
| SFR near $420K | ~$1,853 | ~0.70x |
| SFR near $320K | ~$1,853 | ~0.85x |
Sub-1.00 coverage is not a dead end, but it changes the file. Options a lender may review include a sub-1.00 program, an interest-only structure, or a lower cash-out ratio that trades proceeds for coverage. Each comes with added conditions, and eligibility depends on lender guidelines, credit profile, reserves, and property review. The standard benchmark is 1.00x because rent covers the payment at that level. Some lenders will look below it, typically with stronger compensating factors, lower leverage, or different pricing.
Honestly, this is a market where the smart move often beats the maximum move. For more, see the guide “The Refi Options”, which walks through the mechanics, and the guide “What Is a DSCR Loan”, which covers the coverage ratio itself.
Skip the Postcard Villages
Northern Door and the waterfront towns are priced for lifestyle buyers, not for rent coverage. Zillow shows Fish Creek near $542,056 and Ellison Bay near $507,741. RealtyTrac cites an Ellison Bay median listing price of $799,900. Sister Bay sits near $462,774, and Baileys Harbor near $455,761.
Rents here are set by local wages, not resort pricing. A local housing official quoted by Door County Knock says residents can’t pay the rents or prices developers need. The Door County Knock affordability benchmark puts a market-rate two-bedroom at about $1,023 a month, well below listing asks. Put a $1,023 benchmark against a $500,000 basis and no amount of engineering produces 1.00x.
Large waterfront houses on the Sturgeon Bay east and west sides, selling in the $554,000 to $620,000 range, share the same problem. The equity may be real in these properties. The coverage isn’t.
Why Tenant Demand Doesn’t Follow the Tourism Calendar
Door County runs on two engines that almost never appear in the same town. Tourism generated a record $685.8 million in economic impact, and Door County Pulse reports it supported 3,575 jobs. Those workers mostly need seasonal housing, and much of the long-term stock that once served them has drifted toward short-term use.
The second engine is industrial. The City of Sturgeon Bay lists its largest private employers as Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, Door County Medical Center, Hatco, N.E.W. Industries, Nicolet Bank, Marine Travelift/ExacTech, Tadych’s MarketPlace Foods, Therma-Tron-X, and WireTech Fabricators. Fincantieri reported about 500 employees at its last published count, and gCaptain reports roughly 600 new hires at the Sturgeon Bay yard. Those are year-round paychecks, and the tenants who hold them need year-round housing.
A county-commissioned housing study estimated a 470-unit structural apartment gap and projected demand for another 110 market-rate rentals over five years. Wisconsin Watch reports employees often live in another county because they can’t find affordable housing locally. The study is dated and worth treating that way. The mechanism it describes, employers who can’t recruit because housing is short, still matches the tight vacancy count.
Working DSCR brokers see a recurring pattern in small resort-adjacent markets: the rental comps that support the file sit in the working town, while the appraisal comps that set the value are pulled from the whole county. The gap between those two sets is where cash-out proceeds get trimmed. Files that anchor rent to in-place leases and ask for the appraiser’s rent schedule early tend to run cleaner than files that assume the lifestyle-market number will carry.
Thin Comps, Wide Swings
Appraisal variance is the real risk in a cash-out here. Sturgeon Bay’s median sits at $424,900 while its average sale price is $543,637. Redfin’s stale county series also showed a swing of about 20 percent year over year. Low monthly sales counts do that to a county median.
Multifamily makes the comp problem sharper. Per RentCafe, 72 percent of Sturgeon Bay rentals sit in complexes of fewer than 50 units, and 19 percent are single-family rentals. Multifamily homes spend about 95 days listed before selling. That means few sold duplex comps, and a cash-out appraisal may rest on a small, uneven set. Underwrite to a conservative value and expect appraiser-to-appraiser variance.
Seasoning matters too. Cash-out programs typically look for about six months of ownership measured from title recording. An investor who closed recently and is planning around a renovation should check that clock before scheduling anything else. Reserves usually run about six months of PITIA on most files, and loans of up to $3,000,000 fit standard programs, with smaller balances routed through select lenders in the network. Credit tiers typically start at a 620 floor, with better terms at higher tiers. All of it is subject to lender guidelines.
New supply is the other variable. Sturgeon Bay advanced a 76-unit apartment complex and a 79-lot west-side subdivision, per Door County Daily News, and an affordable project received $927,244 in tax credits from WHEDA. Units like those could pull tenants from older small rentals. Given the gap, the risk looks modest. Older low-to-middle-priced duplexes and single-family rentals face the most direct competition.
Where the Proceeds Go
Cash-out proceeds are acquisition capital, and in this county the best places to put them are different from the place they came from. One route is a second Sturgeon Bay duplex, where tenants already in place simplify lease-based documentation. Another is southern Door. RealtyTrac cites Forestville as the county’s most affordable town, with a median listing near $329,900. Commuter demand is plausible there, but no rent data turned up, so treat it as a place to do homework, not a sure thing.
The stronger play may be a duplex over a single-family rental. Two rent streams on one loan improve coverage at the same price, though buyers trade away exit liquidity. There’s a fair argument for the other side. Single-family homes are easier to sell, and Door County has a deep buyer pool for them. An investor who expects to hold through a full cycle can reasonably choose differently from one who wants flexibility.
Title structure matters for scaling. Loans to LLC-titled entities are available depending on program guidelines, and many operators use them as the portfolio grows. Compare the trade-offs in “Where DSCR and Conventional Diverge”, where conventional loan caps and income documentation tend to slow the second and third purchase.
Door County, Wisconsin investors can have DSCR scenarios reviewed through lender programs that Lendmire helps place across 41 markets, including Washington, D.C. As a DSCR-focused mortgage broker, it structures files but does not approve them. Lendmire’s Wisconsin DSCR loan programs cover the state-level detail. To see a scenario laid out, request a quote or call 828-256-2183.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can a Door County vacation-town property support a cash-out refinance?
Rarely on long-term rent alone. Northern Door prices sit well above what local wages support, so coverage usually lands far under 1.00x. Sturgeon Bay and southern Door product is the realistic range, and even there a lower cash-out ratio may be needed.
Why do Sturgeon Bay values differ so much between sources?
Zillow’s $321,514 is an average home value, Homes.com’s $424,900 is a median, and Movoto’s $522,000 is a median list price. Each measures something different, and waterfront sales skew the averages. A lender’s appraisal, not a portal estimate, sets the number that counts.
DSCR vs. conventional financing
Two common ways to finance an investment property in Door County, WI. They qualify you differently — here’s how investors weigh them.
Why investors choose it
- Qualifies on the property’s rental income — no personal tax returns, W-2s, or pay stubs needed to document income.
- No personal debt-to-income ceiling to clear, so existing mortgages and obligations don’t cap your borrowing the same way.
- Can be closed in an LLC, keeping the property inside a business entity.
- Built for scaling — not held to the limit on number of financed properties that conventional financing applies.
- Underwriting centers on the deal: generally qualifies when the rent covers the payment, a 1.00x coverage ratio being a common baseline (confirmed in underwriting).
- Designed specifically for investment property, including long-term and, where the program allows, short-term rentals.
Where it’s strong
- Often the lowest ongoing financing cost for a buyer who fully qualifies on personal income — a fit for a first property or a cost-first purchase.
Trade-offs for investors
- Requires full personal income documentation and must fit within a debt-to-income limit — salary, existing debts, and other mortgages all count.
- Typically held in your personal name rather than a business entity.
- Caps how many financed properties you can carry, which can become a ceiling as a portfolio grows.
- Evaluates you as a borrower as much as the property, which usually means more paperwork.
How investors usually choose: a first or single property often optimizes for the lowest financing cost; portfolio builders often optimize for leverage, vesting in an LLC, and scaling past conventional caps. The right answer depends on your goals, the property, and current guidelines — both paths run through select lenders in Lendmire’s wholesale network, with eligibility and terms confirmed in underwriting.
Is a duplex better than a single-family home for cash-out here?
On the modeled math, yes. Two rent streams lift coverage from roughly 0.70x to around 0.95x at the same price and leverage. The trade-off is thin sold comps, since Sturgeon Bay duplexes are scarce and sit about 95 days on market.
How much seasoning is needed before pulling equity?
About six months of ownership, measured from title recording, is typical. Some lenders apply different timing, and the maximum is capped at 75 percent LTV regardless. Proceeds depend on rent, PITIA, and reserves, so they are never a fixed cash figure.
Does tourism slowdown risk affect a Sturgeon Bay rental?
Less than in the resort villages. Shipyard, hospital, and manufacturing employment anchors year-round renters, and staff-tracked vacancy was about 0.8 percent in the latest count cited. Verify current local rental rules, taxes, and insurance with qualified local professionals before committing capital.
So, What’s Your Next Move?
Door County rewards owners who read the peninsula as two markets, a resort economy at the tip and a working port at the center. If your equity sits in Sturgeon Bay, is it better spent stretching to the full 75 percent, or stepping down to a cleaner coverage number and buying the next duplex while inventory is thin?
For current guidelines and terms, see Lendmire’s DSCR loan programs page.
About Lendmire
Lendmire is a non-QM mortgage brokerage (NMLS# 2371349) arranging DSCR investor loans in 41 markets, including Washington, D.C., through wholesale and investor-lending channels. DSCR loans are evaluated by the lender on rental income rather than personal income, subject to lender guidelines. They are a fit for LLC-owned portfolios, self-employed investors, and operators scaling beyond conventional loan caps. Recognized as a 2025 Scotsman Guide Top Mortgage Workplace and a 2026 Scotsman Guide Top Mortgage Workplace.
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References
1. Door County Knock, developer perspective
2. Census Reporter, Door County
4. Census Reporter, Door County
5. Zillow, Sturgeon Bay home values
6. Homes.com
7. Zillow, Door County home values
8. Wikipedia’s Door County economy page
9. ApartmentFinder, Sturgeon Bay
10. Homes.com, Sturgeon Bay multifamily
11. Door County Knock affordability benchmark
12. Destination Door County economic impact
13. City of Sturgeon Bay, Doing Business
14. gCaptain
15. Wisconsin Watch, Door County housing
16. RentCafe
18. a 2025 Scotsman Guide Top Mortgage Workplace
19. a 2026 Scotsman Guide Top Mortgage Workplace
This article is part of Lendmire’s investment property cash-out refinance program — full qualification details, guidelines, and scenarios live on the program page.
Related reading: DSCR Cash Out Refinance in Door County, Wisconsin: The 2026 DSCR Financing Guide to Highway 42 · Cash Out Refinance Investment Property Green Bay Wisconsin · Cash Out Refinance Investment Property in Waukesha, Wisconsin: The GE HealthCare Equity Play
Guides: Investment Property Cash-Out Refinance in Wisconsin
Brandon Miller
Founder & CEO, Mortgage Loan Originator, Lendmire LLC
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Required disclosures. Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) operates as a licensed mortgage broker, not a direct lender or depository. The discussion in this article is general in nature and should not be relied upon as financial, legal, or tax advice — every investment scenario is unique and should be reviewed by a qualified professional. Any loan inquiry is subject to lender underwriting, and this article is not a commitment to lend or a guarantee of approval. Mortgage rates, loan terms, and program guidelines vary by borrower, property, and state, and may change without notice. Equal Housing Opportunity. Verify licensure at NMLS Consumer Access.