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Tour Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin! A Northern Wisconsin Destination for a Family Vacation or New Home!

Thursday, June 23, 2022   /   by Julie Winter-Paez

Tour Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin! A Northern Wisconsin Destination for a Family Vacation or New Home!



Join Julie Winter Paez on a tour of this Northern Wisconsin destination, Arbor Vitae, WI! Great little community just north of Minocqua and Woodruff, just west of St. Germain and Eagle River. This great community offers all of the fantastic vacation scenery and lakes of the North with the amenities of a larger city not far away!

Nestled deep in the Northwoods, and surrounded by lakes, Arbor Vitae is a popular vacation destination for visitors seeking four seasons of fun and adventure. The town has a rich logging history dating back to the early 1800s. More than 80% of the land area in and around Arbor Vitae is state-owned and resources are strictly managed. Controlled logging still occurs today. More than 150 years of logging have left many excellent trails for hiking, biking, atving, snowmobiling, and exploring in the Arbor Vitae area.

As one of the older towns in Vilas County, Arbor Vitae was established in the 1890s, hortly after Vilas became a county in 1893. Consisting of approximately 61.5 square miles, Arbor Vitae is part of the Lakeland area, which is considered to have one of the largest concentrations of freshwater bodies in the world. So this is probably one of the oldest communities in northern Wisconsin and it's fantastic. Great area to live. Interestingly enough, the population in Arbor Vitae is 3,453. There are 56 people per square mile. And of course, we know that in the summer months of May through Labor Day, maybe September, October, that's probably almost double with vacation rentals. But another great thing about this area is you've got a huge amount of bike trail infrastructure. You've got the Bittersweet Natural Area and you've got Big Arbor Vitae Lake, which is a really popular lake. But there's also a lot of great lakes in Arbor Vitae Wisconsin, you've got Little Spider lake, Sumo lake, Towanda lake and Bittersweet lake.

Big Arbor Vitae lake is one of the more popular lakes in this area. It also has a great body of water. So when you're talking to people who are looking for quality water, this is one of the lakes they would be talking about. So if you're looking in Arbor Vitae for things to do, this would definitely be a place that you would find yourself coming on a Friday night for a fish fry or a place to collect firewood, which is for sale by the campground as well as putting your foot on the water. Great big beautiful body of water and a really popular spot to be in northern Wisconsin. Again, people like this location because you are close to St. Germain, and you are close to Woodruff and Minocqua area. We're in the Lakeland area school district and you've got Walmart, bigger box stores a little bit farther south but not far enough to be out of reach. Now the average price of one of those homes will probably be in this particular market, probably in the $200,000 to 300,000 range. So again, pretty typical lake type of setting in Northern Wisconsin where you're going to still have the beautiful trees with the twinkling blue water on the other side. Another great feature of this particular part of the Northwoods is the amount of state land. Arbor Vitae is probably about 80% state land, which again is quite unique up here. A lot of undeveloped lands and a lot of natural views there. That's kind of a typical thing you'll see in the beautiful Northwoods.

Looking at the map, Woodruff and Minocqua are the two closest towns in Arbor Vitae. This is where you're going to have your closest Walmart big box stores. Rhinelander is going to be your closest Menards and Home Depot, which is a little farther south from Minocqua. Arbor Vitae is Lakeland School district which is a great school district. And here's another really great fact about Arbor Vitae due to the population being so small, the average for population destiny is 50.4 people per square mile. You've got the main vein of Highway 51 running straight south to Chicago, southern Wisconsin, Highway 29 which cuts over to Green Bay. So it's a really great location for the vacationer that wants to be right off of the highway which is in my opinion, why some of these little lakes here have been super popular.

Arbor Vitae is served by the Lakeland Airport/Noble F. Lee Memorial Field (KARV), located one mile west of the town. You've also got the Central Wisconsin Airport which is straight off of 51, straight south to Wausau. So usually, you can fly from here or there and again, the convenience of that Highway 51 is probably a really big selling feature for this location. This section of 70 and 51 also has some fantastic restaurants, you've got Northfork Finn and Filet and Bad Bones Barbecue. You've got one of the few quick trips we have in Northern Wisconsin there, so again this little corner is a pretty good hot spot as well.

I also want to talk a little bit about home average prices in Arbor Vitae. So we're looking at the word pre Covid versus post Covid. And again this is a very rich area for lakes. The average price for a home, condo town home, anything but vacant land in Arbor Vitae in 2018 to 2019 was about $223,000. This year, the current in the last 12 months average selling price is about $318,000. Now don't get me wrong, you're going to have some properties that are in the 800,000 to 900,000 when you get on Big Arbor Vitae lake and then you're going to have some that are smaller, like those little cabins. So you're going to have a really nice mix there. But that's about the average selling price of that area right now.

Just to close out a couple of other stats about this area, again great location. If you're a person who's really conscious driving up from southern Wisconsin or Chicago, you want easy on, easy off of a highway. Arbor Vitae is going to be a location you really like because of highway 51. It gives you access to Lakeland Union High School, it gives you access to Arbor Vitae Elementary School, and it gives you access to the hospitals. It also gives you access to an easy drive down to the airport. Another nice thing about that spot as well is you've got Walmart; you've got some of the bigger stores in Minocqua that you have easy access to from Arbor Vitae, but yet you're still not in Minocqua lake land you're just a little bit north. For a little bit more privacy, a little less dense population. And if we can help you move into Northern Wisconsin, specifically the Arbor Vitae area, I would love to work with you and give you some more stats on this area. Let us know if we can help and have a fantastic day. See you in the Northwoods!







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