Cottage Grove

The village of Cottage Grove is a steadily growing suburb of Madison that is conveniently located within the metro area, offering easy highway access in every direction. This cozy community provides plenty of park space for residents and is just over 10 miles away from the Dane County Regional Airport. “Cottage Grove is a self-contained community that is still very much part of the broader Madison area,” says Erin Ruth, the village’s Director of Planning and Development. “It’s very easy to get downtown or to the university, and it’s also the only Madison suburb that’s on the I-94 corridor, so it’s easy to get out toward Milwaukee.”

The Madison area is gradually expanding, much like Cottage Grove, where the real estate market is competitive and on par with the greater metro area. “We’re growing, and for a long time, the village was very much dominated by single-family homes on larger lots,” Ruth says. “More recently, we’re starting to get more multifamily opportunities, both rentals and condos.” According to Ruth, Cottage Grove has added several hundred housing units in the last couple of years. Rising interest rates have led to an inventory issue, though – there were 54 homes sold in September 2023, compared with 100 the September prior. There's a handful of older construction, but most of the homes in Cottage Grove have been built since 1990. Homes range in price from around $350,000 on the low end for a three-bedroom rambler to over $600,000 on the high end for new construction with five bedrooms.

Families with children in Cottage Grove are served by the Monona Grove School District, one of the better districts in Madison, graded A-minus by Niche. Kids can start their education at Cottage Grove Elementary, a classic walkable community school with a B-plus grade. The school’s student-teacher ratio of 12 to 1 is better than the national average of 17 to 1. Also with a B-plus grade, the Glacial Drumlin School has a robust music program with classes in band, choir, orchestra and general music. Monona Grove High School is a highly rated school graded A-minus by Niche, which named it the No. 5 best STEM school in the Madison area. Course offerings include foreign languages, choir, orchestra and pre-engineering classes.

Cottage Grove is a suburban area within a quick driving distance of the best that Madison has to offer, but there are also shopping and dining destinations closer to home. For stocking up on groceries and essentials, there is a Piggly Wiggle supermarket on West Cottage Grove Road, just down the street from CVS. Since opening in September 2022, Kozy Nuk Cafe has developed an enthusiastic customer base. Hidden behind a modest brick storefront, Kozy Nuk serves an unbeatable breakfast at a reasonable price. Doundrins Distilling is a popular distillery with spirits served at roughly 700 stores, bars and restaurants around Wisconsin and Northern Illinois. In 2020, they built an 11,000-square-foot Cocktail Garden in a large outdoor area that has individual seating and enough room to bring your open blanket or chairs to set up shop on the lawn for a few hours.

Depending on your perspective, the Glacial Drumlin Trail begins or ends in Cottage Grove at a welcoming trailhead with picnic tables near Fireman’s Park at the intersection of Clark and East Main Streets. Running between Wisconsin’s two largest urban areas, the trail stretches 52 miles along an abandoned rail corridor through 10 small towns from Cottage Grove to Waukesha. Phoebe Bakken Memorial Park is where the community comes together. Redesigned in 2019, the park promises an ADA-compliant expansive splash pad for all ages with wet and dry zones. There is also an inviting multi-purpose building that houses restrooms, a picnic area and a place for serving and concessions. Also on site is the Bakken Wheels Skatepark and pickleball and tennis courts.