Augusta

Why people love it here

• Dells Mill — a water-powered grist mill from 1864, still standing on Bridge Creek north of town and one of the most photographed landmarks in the county.
• Amish country: the farms around Augusta are home to an Amish community, and buggy traffic is part of the landscape — slow down and enjoy it.
• Lake Eau Claire is minutes north — about 900 acres of water with a county park, covered in its own guide.
• A small city that still has its own school, its own main street, and its own identity — not a suburb of anything.

Mill town turned Amish-country hub

Augusta grew up on Bridge Creek’s water power — the Dells Mill, built in 1864, ground grain for the surrounding farms and still stands as a museum-grade landmark. The farms never left; today many of them are Amish, and the Augusta area is one of Wisconsin’s recognized Amish communities, with the quilts, bakeries, and buggy traffic to prove it.

Add Lake Eau Claire just north of town and Augusta covers two markets at once: small-city homes in town, and a lake at its doorstep.

The homes

In-town homes with small-city bones — older stock near the center, practical builds on the edges — plus farmsteads and acreage in the townships, where you may share the road with a buggy. Land, outbuildings, and elbow room are the recurring themes; the lake adds a second market just north (see the Lake Eau Claire guide).

So a showing day here usually means looking at three different kinds of property, and it helps to name which one you are really shopping for before you start. An in-town home is about the small city itself — main street, school, and neighbors close by. A farmstead is about land and outbuildings, with the well, septic, and road questions that come with them. A lake-adjacent place belongs to the Lake Eau Claire market instead. The buyers who do best here decide which of those they want, then price it against its own kind.

What to watch for

• Buggy traffic is a feature, not a bug — but know that country roads here mean slow, careful driving after dark.
• Well, septic, and outbuilding condition on the farm properties.
• Lake-adjacent properties belong to a different market — price them with the Lake Eau Claire guide, not town comps.
• Internet varies by road; verify for remote work.

Schools & services

The Augusta Area School District serves the city and surrounding countryside. Confirm the assignment for any specific address with the district before you buy.

That own-school fact is part of the town’s identity — this is a small city that still does things for itself. The district covers the city and the countryside around it, so both an in-town home and a township farmstead can land in Augusta schools — but “can” is doing work in that sentence. Confirm the specific address, every time.

Mill, lake & back roads

• Dells Mill and its pond — the county’s favorite photo stop, minutes from downtown.
• Amish bakeries, quilt shops, and produce stands on the country roads around town.
• Lake Eau Claire County Park — beach, boat landing, and camping just north.
• Eau Claire’s full services 20 minutes west when the small city runs out.

The market, honestly

Augusta prices gently and turns over quietly — in-town homes for local and commuter buyers, acreage for the land-minded, and the lake doing its own thing just north. It rewards patience: Carter can watch the city and the townships and flag the right ones as they surface.

Patience only works if someone is watching, though. Because the right Augusta property may be an in-town home, a township farmstead, or a lake place — three hunts at once — Carter keeps an eye on all of them and flags the ones that fit as they surface. When something does come up, be ready: quiet markets still reward the buyer who has already done the well, septic, internet, and school checks in the showing-day checklist on this page.

Who it fits — and the honest trade-offs

Showing-day checklist

• Visit the mill, then drive the Amish country roads around town.
• Verify internet at the exact address.
• Confirm the school assignment for the address.
• Pull well and septic records on rural properties.
• Price lake-area homes with lake comps, not town comps.

Good next step

Tour Augusta and Lake Eau Claire together — most buyers here are really choosing between the town, the land, and the lake. Carter can run all three in one trip.

Sources: City of Augusta · Augusta Area School District · Dells Mill — Eau Claire County history · Lake Eau Claire District · Eau Claire County Treasurer — 2025 Mill Rates · Wisconsin Department of Revenue — 2025 Statement of Taxes (Eau Claire County) This guide is a starting point, not a statement about every property. Verify schools, taxes, zoning, condition, and other priorities for a specific address.

House-hunting this week? See this week’s open houses in Eau Claire — every brokerage’s open houses, in one place, no sign-up needed.

CARTER’S SALES HERE

Carter’s Augusta sales

Guides are opinions; closings are proof. 2 of Carter’s 55 career sales are in Augusta — $352,000 in closed volume from the MLS-verified record behind the numbers on the home page. Most recent first:

Taxes & total cost

The short version: About $310 a month on a $250,000 home — the school district takes close to half the bill, on a small-city rate that sits below most of its neighbors on the county sheet.

Here is the number to plan around. For the City of Augusta, Eau Claire County’s 2025 mill rates put the net mill rate at $14.86 per $1,000 of assessed value (0.014864160), for the 2025 levy collected in 2026. A mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of value. The tax is figured on the assessor’s value, which is supposed to track market value but can sit above or below what a home actually sells for — here the county put the city’s assessment ratio at 97.53 for this levy, so Augusta’s assessed values run close to full market value and this rate lands close to face value.

That rate is a bundle of levies. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue’s 2025 Statement of Taxes for Eau Claire County breaks the city’s total levy into these shares:

• Augusta Area School District — 47.5% of the total levy.
• City of Augusta — 21.3%.
• Eau Claire County — 15.2%.
• Tax increment district — 12.4%.
• Chippewa Valley Technical College — 3.5%.

The biggest driver is the school district: just under half of every tax dollar levied in the city goes to Augusta’s own schools.

The worked example, on a $250,000 home. Step 1: treat $250,000 as the home’s assessed value — that is the assumption in this example, stated out loud. Step 2: $250,000 ÷ 1,000 = 250, and 250 × $14.86 = $3,715, or about $3,720 a year. Step 3: $3,720 ÷ 12 = about $310 a month.

That is the gross figure, and the real check is smaller. Wisconsin’s lottery and gaming credit — $235.50 on the county sheet for Augusta school district parcels, for a primary residence — and the first dollar credit ($78.50 on the same sheet) are subtracted after the bill is calculated. Special charges and assessments are not in the rate, and your home’s actual assessment may differ from this example price.

Why here versus the next community? Augusta runs its own small-city services and its own school district on a rate that sits below Fall Creek’s $16.83 on the same county sheet — and because city assessments are kept close to market value, that lower mill rate is a real difference, not an accounting artifact. Put the $310 a month in the full equation — mortgage, plus taxes, plus insurance — when you compare an in-town Augusta home against a township farmstead or a lake place, which carry different rates again.

See how all 28 areas compare: Chippewa Valley property taxes, side by side.

Questions buyers ask about Augusta