Sturgeon Bay’s planning staff tracks about 1,200 rental units and calls landlords monthly. In a recent count, only 10 of those units were vacant, roughly 0.8 percent. That number reframes a county most investors file under “vacation market.” The postcard villages get the attention. The working port town has the tenants.
TL;DR: A Door County, Wisconsin cash-out refinance is underwritten primarily on the property’s rental income measured against its full monthly obligation, so the workable path runs through Sturgeon Bay duplexes and workforce single-family homes: order a fresh appraisal, confirm about six months of ownership, size the loan under a 75 percent LTV ceiling, and document lease income.
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
Prefilled with starting assumptions — enter your property’s value, balance, taxes, and insurance for a more accurate picture.
Program parameters update from Lendmire’s centralized guideline source. Taxes and insurance are editable estimates.
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.
- Sturgeon Bay’s tracked rentals ran about 0.8 percent vacant, per Door County Knock.
- Sturgeon Bay multi-family listings ranged from $419,900 to $799,900, per Homes.com.
- Cash-out LTV tops out at 75 percent; the minimum DSCR benchmark is 1.00.
- Northern Door lifestyle towns rarely reach coverage on long-term rent. Every figure here varies by lender and program — guidelines, property type, leverage, and credit profile all apply.
Lendmire (NMLS# 2371349) is a non-QM mortgage broker. Door County, Wisconsin investors can have DSCR scenarios reviewed through lender programs that Lendmire helps place across 41 markets, including Washington, D.C. This article covers one angle: pulling equity out of a Door County rental you already own. Purchase mechanics are a separate conversation.
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 Coverage Math Bends
Sturgeon Bay is the county’s DSCR market. It is the county seat, with 9,646 residents at the last census inside a county of 30,445. It is also where the year-round employers sit. The City of Sturgeon Bay lists Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding, Door County Medical Center, Hatco, N.E.W. Industries, Nicolet Bank, Marine Travelift/ExacTech, and several other manufacturers as its largest private employers.
The shipyard is the swing factor. Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding reported about 500 employees at one point, and a later industry report describes about 200 new hires at the Sturgeon Bay yard. The mayor put the constraint plainly: “The big thing right now is new employees and housing.” Those workers need somewhere to live, and the county’s own AECOM housing study estimated a structural gap of roughly 470 apartment units. Wisconsin Watch reports that employees often live in another county because nothing suitable is available locally.
That is a year-round tenant base. It does not depend on the tourism calendar. Tourism is still enormous, with $685.8 million in total economic impact and 3,575 supported jobs. But the long-term rental case rests on the shipyard, the hospital, and the manufacturers.
What the Value Data Says (and Doesn’t)
The price data conflicts, and any honest read starts there. Zillow puts the Door County average home value at $436,878, up 2.3 percent over the past year. For Sturgeon Bay alone, Zillow’s city page shows $321,514, up 7.3 percent. Homes.com reports a median of $424,900 against an average sale price of $543,637. The gap between median and average says a handful of high-end sales are skewing the top.
The workable read is a range of roughly $320,000 to $425,000 for typical Sturgeon Bay product, with a long tail above it. Movoto shows a median list price of $522,000 and 136 days on market. Listing prices run well ahead of where things sell.
Why does this matter for a cash-out? Because the appraisal drives the loan. Redfin’s county series has swung as much as 20 percent year over year on thin monthly sales counts. In a market this small, a refinance appraisal rests on a few comparables, and two appraisers can land in different places. An owner who assumes last quarter’s headline number is the appraised value is setting up a disappointment. Underwrite to a conservative value and treat anything above it as upside.
Appreciation is the other half of the story, and it is thin on hard data. No clean multi-year series turned up. The one dated anchor is an earlier-cycle county median near $315,000, which sits about a third below today’s Zillow county figure. An owner who bought before that run holds real equity. Whether it converts to cash depends on rent coverage, not on the equity alone.
The Duplex Math, Run Honestly
A duplex beats a single-family house here, and the reason is arithmetic. Homes.com shows only five multi-family listings in Sturgeon Bay, priced from $419,900 to $799,900. ApartmentFinder shows listing-average rents of $1,363 for a two-bedroom and $1,853 for a three-bedroom.
Run the numbers on a side-by-side two-bedroom duplex valued near $420,000. Assume both units rent at the two-bedroom average, or about $2,700 combined. These are modeled inputs, not a market statistic. Coverage is rent divided by full PITIA, meaning principal, interest, taxes, and insurance. At the 75 percent LTV ceiling, and including taxes and insurance at Wisconsin-average loads, that duplex lands just under 1.00, in the 0.9x range.
Now pull leverage back. At roughly 60 percent LTV, the same duplex moves into the low-1.1 range. That is the real tradeoff: the property clears the benchmark only if the investor takes less cash out.
A three-bedroom single-family house at a similar value grosses about $1,853 on the same listing data. Coverage there runs in the 0.6x range at full leverage. Even at conservative leverage it struggles to reach 1.00.
| Scenario (modeled) | Rent basis | Coverage at 75% LTV |
|---|---|---|
| Duplex near $420K | Two 2BR units | Just under 1.00 |
| Duplex near $420K, 60% LTV | Two 2BR units | Low 1.1s |
| SFR near $420K | One 3BR | Roughly 0.6x |
Sub-1.00 files are not dead ends. A lender may review a sub-1.00 program, an interest-only structure, or a lower loan-to-value, each with its own conditions on pricing, reserves, and leverage. Eligibility review depends on lender guidelines, credit approval, and property review. Most standard DSCR programs are built around a 1.00 benchmark because rent covers the payment at that level.
Why Rents Sit Where They Do
Local wages cap what a landlord can charge. Door County Knock reports that a resident needs about $19.67 an hour to afford a two-bedroom market-rate rental at roughly $1,023 a month. Listing asks run well above that: sample Sturgeon Bay houses on Zillow’s rental page show a three-bedroom from $1,359, a four-bedroom at $2,295, and a three-bedroom house at $2,700.
Treat those single listings as anecdotes, not averages. The spread between the affordability benchmark and the asking rents shows where the risk sits. A landlord pushing toward $2,700 on a house is testing the ceiling of what local wages support. A landlord holding a two-bedroom near the mid-$1,300s is closer to what the tenant base can pay. The DSCR file should be built on the rent that leases actually hold, not the top-of-range listing.
Consider an owner of a Sturgeon Bay duplex with both units under lease. In-place leases simplify the documentation, and RentCafe data suggests small buildings define the market: about 72 percent of rentals sit in complexes of fewer than 50 units, and 19 percent are single-family. That also means thin comps. Duplexes spent about 95 days listed before selling, so expect few sold comparables and some appraiser-to-appraiser variance.
What Working Brokers See in Markets Like This
Working DSCR brokers see a recurring pattern in small, resort-adjacent counties: the owner’s mental value comes from the postcard towns, but the rental income comes from the working town. Files stall when the appraisal reflects a thin comp set and the borrower sized the ask off headline prices. The stronger files show in-place leases, conservative leverage, and reserves that clear the guideline before the application, not after. In a place like Door County, where a few sales move the medians, that discipline matters more than in a deep metro.
Skip the Postcard Villages
Northern Door is a lifestyle market, not a cash-flow market. Zillow shows Fish Creek near $542,000 and Ellison Bay near $508,000, and RealtyTrac cites an Ellison Bay median listing price of $799,900. Sister Bay and Baileys Harbor sit in the mid-$450,000s. Egg Harbor’s sample is too thin to trust, with one source showing three homes sold.
Prices like these run against local rents. A house priced for a lifestyle buyer does not generate enough long-term rent to cover a 75 percent LTV debt load. Owners here should not expect a cash-out to pencil on long-term rent. Waterfront houses on the Sturgeon Bay side, at $554,000 to $620,000 on Redfin’s city page, have the same problem.
Southern Door is the quieter bet. Forestville has a median listing near $329,900, the lowest entry point in the county. Workforce commuters are the likely tenants, but no rent data surfaced, so any coverage claim there would be a guess. Better to say the data is missing than to fill it in.
The stronger play for most owners is probably the Sturgeon Bay duplex over anything north of it. Investors chasing appreciation in the villages could argue the other way, but that is a different loan for a different goal.
The Program Terms That Shape the Equity Number
Four terms frame every Door County cash-out:
- LTV ceiling: 75 percent on cash-out. This differs from the purchase ceiling, and the two are not interchangeable.
- Seasoning: about six months of ownership, measured from title recording.
- Coverage: a 1.00 minimum DSCR, measured as rent used for lender review against full PITIA.
- Reserves: about six months of PITIA, and about nine months on balances above $1,500,000. Final terms depend on lender guidelines, property type, leverage, and the borrower’s complete credit picture.
Credit tiers run from a 620 floor up through 660, 680, and 700, with pricing and leverage improving as scores climb. Loan amounts run up to $3,000,000 on standard programs, and smaller balances route through select lenders in the network. Those are typical ranges, subject to lender guidelines. For LLC-titled properties, eligibility is subject to lender program eligibility.
Equity available is not a guaranteed cash figure. It comes from the appraised value, the 75 percent cap, the payoff on the existing loan, and whether rent still covers the new payment. On a Door County duplex, the coverage test often binds before the LTV cap does. The refinance details and a walkthrough of “The Refi Options” lay out the mechanics. For the general framework, see the guide “What Is a DSCR Loan” and the guide “Where DSCR and Conventional Diverge”. Lendmire’s Wisconsin DSCR loan programs cover the state-level picture.
Supply Risk: The Pipeline Is Real, but Modest
New units are coming. The Avenue, an affordable project, received $927,244 in state housing tax credits. Sturgeon Bay also advanced a 76-unit apartment complex and a 79-lot west-side subdivision. The county’s housing study cited about 200 apartments planned or under construction across Sturgeon Bay and Sister Bay.
Given the gap, that is a modest risk, not a threat. But it is not zero. Older duplexes and single-family rentals in the low-to-middle price tiers face the most competition from new workforce units. An owner cashing out should stress the file against a rent softening in the older stock, not just against today’s leases. Physical constraints help: a lack of public sewer and water and less buildable land limit how fast supply can grow. Building permits peaked at 527 and fell to 139 at last count.
Where Do the Proceeds Go Next?
Cash-out proceeds are capital, and where they go decides whether the refinance was smart. Two paths make sense for a Door County owner. One is a second small multifamily in Sturgeon Bay, where the same employers support tenant demand. The other is a market with deeper rent-to-price ratios, outside the county, using proceeds as a down payment. The second path takes the equity out of a thin-comp market and into a deeper one.
The wrong path is trapping proceeds in a lifestyle-priced house that cannot cover its own debt. Coverage on the next asset matters as much as coverage on this one. Investors can see what the numbers look like before committing, or reach the team at 828-256-2183 to talk through a scenario. Verify current local rental rules, taxes, and insurance with qualified local professionals before sizing any deal.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Door County property need to be in Sturgeon Bay to work for a DSCR cash-out?
No, but Sturgeon Bay is where the coverage math is most likely to clear. Northern Door and waterfront properties are priced for lifestyle buyers, and long-term rent rarely covers full PITIA at high leverage. Southern Door is cheaper, but rent data there is thin, so coverage is harder to support.
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.
How much equity can I pull from a Sturgeon Bay duplex?
It depends on the appraisal, the existing payoff, and the coverage test. The LTV ceiling is 75 percent on cash-out, and reserves of about six months of PITIA apply. On a duplex near $420,000 with modeled rents, full leverage lands just under 1.00, so many owners pull back toward 60 percent LTV to clear the benchmark. Nothing is guaranteed, and results are subject to lender guidelines.
Will thin comps hurt my appraisal?
Thin comps can hurt an appraisal. Sturgeon Bay had only a handful of multi-family listings in one recent snapshot, and the gap between median and average sales shows how a few high-end deals skew the numbers. Appraisers may lean on a small comp set, so underwriting to a conservative value and holding in-place leases helps the file.
Is the shipyard a reliable rent driver?
It is a strong anchor, though not a guarantee. Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding is expanding, and the hospital and several manufacturers add year-round employment, so demand does not swing with tourism. Still, one large employer is concentration risk, and investors should weigh it.
Can I cash out on a seasonal second home in northern Door?
A property must generate qualifying rental income to work under a DSCR program, and lifestyle-priced homes there rarely cover their debt on long-term rent. Ownership also needs to be about six months from title recording. An owner in that situation should test coverage first.
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 — 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. Homes.com, Sturgeon Bay multi-family
3. 30,445
4. doorcountypulse.com — Door County Tourism Sets New Economic Record in 2025
5. U.S. Census Bureau (census.gov) — QuickFacts
6. City of Sturgeon Bay, Doing Business
7. doorcountypulse.com — Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding Evolves as Big Employer Better Neighbor
8. gcaptain.com — Fincantieri Adds 600 Shipyard Workers as Shipbuilding Renaissance Gains Steam
9. Wisconsin Watch, Door County housing
10. Destination Door County, visitor economy release
11. Door County average home value at $436,878
12. Zillow — Home Values Sturgeon Bay WI
14. ApartmentFinder
15. Door County Knock, housing spectrum part two
17. RentCafe
18. Fish Creek near $542,000 and Ellison Bay near $508,000
20. a 2025 Scotsman Guide Top Mortgage Workplace
21. 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: Cash Out Refinance on a Door County Investment Property · DSCR Loans in Door County / Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin: Investor Financing for Ephraim, Fish Creek, Lake Delton & Real Estate Investors · DSCR Loans Wisconsin: Investor Financing for Milwaukee, Madison, Door County, Lake Geneva, and Real Estate Investors
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.