Neighborhood · Ranked #67,219 of 84,120 nationally
Downer Avenue Eviction Risk: Lower , Milwaukee
Tract 55079007500 ·
Milwaukee County, WI · pop 2,507 · neighborhood within 0.3 mi
Census tract 55079007500 covers part of the Downer Avenue area of Milwaukee, WI, and scores 3/10 on landlord eviction risk. Average gross rent is $1,794, 69% above the Milwaukee average.
Risk score
3
Lower
Confidence 100% · 1–10 scale
Household mix · 100 hh
Burdened renters 12%Stable renters 27%Owners 61%
Tract context
Occupied units951
Renter share38.5%
SVI overall0.17
Poverty rate17.5%
Median income$147,321
Percentile rank
Higher percentile = riskier than more peers.
Within neighborhood
0th percentile
#8 of 8 tracts In Downer Avenue
Very Low
Within parent city
2th percentile
#205 of 210 tracts In Milwaukee
Very Low
Within county
16th percentile
#254 of 301 tracts In Milwaukee County
Very Low
Within state
29th percentile
#1,083 of 1,528 tracts In Wisconsin
Low
Geographic context
Risk heat across Milwaukee and the region
Centroid at 43.0711, -87.8777 · click any tract to drill in
Why Downer Avenue scores 3
9 axes · 1 = landlord-friendly
Local political climate
Inherited from Milwaukee
7.5
Regional political climate
2024 county presidential margin
7.0
State political climate
Wisconsin legislature & governorship
2.9
Economic stress
17.5% poverty · this tract
4.4
Supply constraint
$1,794 rent vs county FMR
9.3
Rent control risk
Inherited from Milwaukee
2.5
Eviction process difficulty
State law sets the calendar
5.5
Tenant organizing strength
Inherited from Milwaukee
6.0
Housing court bias
Inherited from Milwaukee
5.5
How Downer Avenue compares
Risk score vs. parent city, county, state.
CDC Social Vulnerability Index
SVI percentile: 17
CDC/ATSDR 2022. Higher = more vulnerable. National percentile across 84k tracts.
36%Socioeconomic
5%Household composition
21%Racial/ethnic minority
31%Housing & transportation
Historical context · 1930s redlining
HOLC grade: B: Still Desirable
This tract sits within an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s. Grade B meant middle-class areas with mortgage access. These designations suppressed minority homeownership for generations and remain a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings and rent burden.
0%Grade A
77%Grade B
21%Grade C
0%Grade D · redlined
Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), 1935-1940 HOLC residential security maps, aggregated to 2020 census tracts by area share. CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
Eviction filings
Court-record eviction history
Court-validated eviction filings collected from county clerks and consolidated by the Eviction Lab at Princeton University. Filing rate is filings per 100 renter households.1
Historic baseline (2000–2018)
47Total filings over 12 yrs
1.10%Avg annual filing rate
2.8%Peak (2012)
7Filings in 2016 (latest validated)
Filings by year2003 to 2017
Filings dropped 100% over the past 13 months.
Pandemic-era tracking (2020–2021)
9Total filings 2020-21
0.1Avg monthly (observed)
0.4Pre-pandemic baseline
0.27×Ratio to baseline
Monthly filings 2020–20212020-01-01 to 2026-05-01
Pandemic filings ran far below baseline (moratorium effect). Eviction Lab tracked Milwaukee, WI as part of its 34-metro Eviction Tracking System.
Comparable tracts
Census tracts with similar eviction risk
Within Downer Avenue. Closest by Eviction Risk Score.
Crude prevalence of conditions linked to housing loss. Source: CDC PLACES (cwsq-ngmh), 2023 model-based small-area estimates.
7.8%Housing insecurity
4.4%Utility-shutoff threat
9.9%Food insecurity
9.5%SNAP enrollment
6.6%Transit barriers
6.2%No health insurance
16.8%Frequent mental distress
24.7%Any disability
Analysis
What drives eviction risk in Downer Avenue
The voucher gap is 42.7%: households holding assistance that local rents will not absorb, which surfaces as churn rather than arrears. Cost burden runs 31% here against 45.8% across Milwaukee County. What pushes it up most is supply constraint at 9.3/10.
20% are severely burdened past the 50% mark. That cohort absorbs no shock: one repair bill or one cut shift converts straight into arrears. Sitting well above the midpoint, court filing pressure reads 8.1/10. Against the Milwaukee County average of 4.5, this tract reads safer for landlords by 1.5 points.
Running hot, local political climate reads 7.5/10. Princeton's Eviction Lab logged 47 filings here across 12 tracked years.
Food insecurity runs 9.9% against 17.8% nationally. The worst year on record was 2012, when 2.8% of renter households were served. This ground was mapped B ("Still Desirable") on the 1930s HOLC security maps for Milwaukee Co. That grading determined who could get a mortgage, and its imprint on tenure and rent burden is still visible in the ACS data above.
In a typical year about 1.1% of renter households face a filing. That is riskier than roughly 20% of the 84,120 US census tracts in this model.
CDC social-vulnerability scoring puts the tract at 2.5/10.
These are ACS 5-year estimates; the score moves when the ACS, court-record, or statute inputs behind it move.
Frequently asked
About tract 55079007500
Q1
What is the eviction-risk score for census tract 55079007500?
Census tract 55079007500 in the Downer Avenue neighborhood scores 3/10 (Lower tier). The Eviction Risk Score blends state law, county filing rates, parent-city politics, and tract-specific rent-to-income ratios + poverty signals.
Q2
What is the average rent in tract 55079007500?
Median gross rent is $1,794/month (ACS 5-year 2023, table B25064). 31% of renter households are cost-burdened.
Q3
What is the poverty rate in tract 55079007500?
17.5% of residents in tract 55079007500 live below the federal poverty line (ACS B17001, 2023). Population: 2,507.
Q4
How socially vulnerable is tract 55079007500?
CDC Social Vulnerability Index ranks this tract in the 17th percentile nationally. Sub-themes: socioeconomic 36th, household 5th, minority 21th, housing 31th.
Q5
Is tract 55079007500 considered part of Downer Avenue?
Yes. Per Census Bureau 2020 Block Assignment Files, the plurality of blocks in tract 55079007500 fall within Downer Avenue (neighborhood centroid within 0.3 miles, OSM data).
Q6
How many evictions are filed each year in tract 55079007500?
Princeton Eviction Lab recorded 47 eviction filings across 12 validated years in tract 55079007500 (2000-2018). The average annual filing rate is 1.10% of renter households, peaking at 2.8% in 2012. Source: Eviction Lab tract-validated 2024 release.
Q7
Did eviction filings in tract 55079007500 drop during COVID?
Pandemic-era filings ran 0.27× the pre-COVID monthly baseline. Filings dropped sharply, likely a moratorium effect. Tracked by the Eviction Lab Eviction Tracking System (Milwaukee eviction risk, WI), 2020-2021.
Q8
What share of households in tract 55079007500 struggle to pay rent?
About 7.8% of adults in this tract reported housing insecurity (could not pay rent or mortgage in the past 12 months), per the CDC PLACES 2023 model-based small-area estimate. 4.4% also reported utility shutoff threats, a frequent precursor to eviction filings.
Q9
How does tract 55079007500 compare to Milwaukee overall?
Tract 55079007500 scores 3/10, lower than the parent city of Milwaukee at 4.4/10. City-scale signals (state law, local rent controls, court bias) are inherited from Milwaukee eviction risk; what makes this tract different are its tract-specific economic stress and supply-constraint sub-scores.
Q10
Was tract 55079007500 historically redlined?
Yes. This tract sits inside an area graded by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation in the 1930s, with a dominant grade of B. 0% of the tract's area was rated D ("Hazardous"), the redlined tier. HOLC redlining systematically denied mortgage credit to Black, immigrant, and working-class neighborhoods and remains a documented predictor of present-day eviction filings, rent burden, and homeownership gaps. Source: Mapping Inequality (americanpanorama.org), Robert K. Nelson et al.
Sibling tracts
Highest-risk tracts in Milwaukee
Top eight tracts in Milwaukee ranked by composite eviction-risk score.