The quick read: A DSCR loan on a Green Bay rental is sized on the property's rent divided by the full monthly payment, not on the investor's personal income. NerdWallet's DSCR guide (updated July 17, 2026) says that payment includes principal, interest, taxes, insurance and homeowners association fees, and that lenders typically want a ratio of around 1.25 or higher. The Green Bay question is which rent to put on top of that division. Most DSCR deals here are older duplexes, two-flats and converted houses on the East Side, in Astor Park and in nearby Allouez and De Pere, not the new downtown towers. But the towers set the competition: the City of Green Bay's Tax Incremental District No. 27 project plan counts 268 new market-rate apartments at 221 Cherry Street and 61 more at 222 Cherry Street, both assumed onto the 2027 tax roll, in a metro the Census Bureau says permitted 413 units in buildings of five or more units in all of 2025. Size a downtown-adjacent loan on stressed rent, not trailing rent.
Loan type: DSCR rental loan, business purpose, non-owner-occupied Typical minimum ratio (NerdWallet, updated Jul 17, 2026): around 1.25 Typical DSCR rates and down payment (NerdWallet): 6% to 8%; 20% to 30% down Downtown pipeline in one city plan (TID No. 27, adopted Aug 27, 2024): 268 plus 61 market-rate apartments Metro permits, buildings of five or more units, 2025 (Census): 18 buildings, 413 units HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent, Green Bay, FY2026: $1,164, up from $1,147 in FY2025
How does a DSCR loan work on a Green Bay rental property?
A DSCR loan on a Green Bay rental divides the property's monthly rent by its full monthly payment, including taxes and insurance, and lends only as much as keeps that ratio at the lender's minimum, which NerdWallet says is typically around 1.25. The investor's personal income is not the qualifying number; the building's rent is.
NerdWallet's guide lists the usual requirements as a DSCR of around 1.25 or higher verified through an appraisal, a credit score of at least 620, a down payment of at least 20%, three to six months of mortgage payments in reserve and a minimum loan amount of around $100,000. It adds that most DSCR loans carry prepayment penalties, that they can cost more than a conventional loan, and that a DSCR loan can't be used to buy a primary residence or a fixer-upper. Its comparison table puts typical DSCR rates at 6% to 8% with 20% to 30% down on a 30-year term.
Two consequences follow for Green Bay. First, the property has to be a rental you do not live in, so an owner-occupied duplex is a different loan. Second, the property has to be rent-ready, so a converted Astor Park house that still needs a new kitchen and a second egress is a rehab first and a DSCR refinance later. Run the numbers in the DSCR calculator before you ask for quotes, and run them twice: once on today's rent and once on the stressed rent this guide recommends.
Which Green Bay rentals fit a DSCR loan?
The Green Bay rentals that fit a DSCR loan best are the city's older one-to-four-unit buildings with documented leases: frame duplexes and two-flats on the East Side around Olde Main Street, large houses converted to two or three units in Astor Park, and single-family and duplex rentals in Allouez and De Pere that serve as comparables.
The permit file explains why the existing stock carries the DSCR market. The Census Bureau's 2025 Building Permits Survey shows the Green Bay metro permitted 832 single-family homes, 84 two-unit buildings with 168 units, no three-and-four-unit buildings, and 18 buildings of five or more units carrying 413 units, about 23 units per building. The Census place file narrows it. The City of Green Bay permitted 56 single-family homes, seven two-unit buildings with 14 units and nine buildings of five or more units with 213 units. De Pere permitted 63 single-family homes, three two-unit buildings with six units and one building of 60 units. Allouez permitted five single-family homes.
Read that as a split market. New small rental supply in the metro is mostly suburban duplexes, and new apartment supply comes in buildings of more than 20 units, which are usually financed outside the DSCR market. Almost nothing new is being built in the three-and-four-unit size, so a Green Bay DSCR borrower is buying or refinancing an older building and competing for tenants with whatever is newer. That makes the appraiser's rent comparables, and the quality of your leases, the center of the loan. NerdWallet notes the appraisal is where a lender checks the property against its DSCR requirement, and our guide on which rent a DSCR lender uses, the lease or market rent walks through how that choice is made.
Why does downtown Green Bay's new supply change the rent a lender should use?
Downtown Green Bay's new supply changes the rent a DSCR borrower should underwrite because a block of new market-rate apartments reaching the market together gives tenants near downtown more choice at renewal, so a downtown-adjacent building should be sized on rent stressed for vacancy and concessions, not on the trailing rent roll.
The scale comes from the city's own paperwork. The City of Green Bay's Tax Incremental District No. 27 project plan, adopted by the Common Council on August 27, 2024, describes an eight-story mixed-use building with 268 market-rate apartment units and first-floor commercial space at 221 Cherry Street, and a five-story addition of 61 market-rate apartment units on top of an existing commercial building at 222 Cherry Street. The plan's development assumptions put both buildings on the tax roll with value in 2027, which means the plan expected both to be finished during 2026. That is 329 planned units in one downtown district, against 213 units permitted in five-plus-unit buildings in the entire City of Green Bay in 2025, and 413 across the whole metro.
The same plan also anticipates mixed-use development with residential space at 227 E. Walnut Street and 109 N. Adams Street, so the Cherry Street count is a floor for the stress test, not a ceiling. Wisconsin law adds one more fact to the picture: section 66.1015 of the Wisconsin Statutes says no city, village, town or county may regulate the amount of rent charged for a residential rental unit. Rent in Green Bay moves with the market in both directions. When new supply arrives, nothing holds an older unit's renewal rent where it was.
HUD's numbers show how modest the trailing trend is. HUD's documentation for the Green Bay, WI HUD Metro FMR Area lists FY2026 Fair Market Rents of $867 for an efficiency, $931 for a one-bedroom, $1,164 for a two-bedroom and $1,545 for a three-bedroom, against $841, $918, $1,147 and $1,521 in FY2025. That is roughly 1.5% for the two-bedroom. Fair Market Rent is a HUD program benchmark that includes utilities, not a survey of your block, but it is a useful check: a pro forma that assumes rents keep climbing while several hundred new units lease up nearby is the number to question first.
What does the DSCR math look like on an illustrative East Side two-flat?
On an illustrative East Side two-flat, a modest stress for vacancy and a renewal concession pulls the ratio from about 1.28 to below 1.25, and cuts the loan that holds a 1.25 ratio by roughly $13,000 to $36,000. Every figure below is an assumption for illustration, not a quote.
Your parcel's tax bill and insurance quote replace the assumed lines.
Rent (assumed): 2 two-bedroom units at $1,100 = $2,200 per month Rent check: below HUD's FY2026 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent of $1,164 for the Green Bay HUD Metro FMR Area, which includes utilities Loan (assumed): $190,000, 30-year amortization at 7.00% = $1,264 principal and interest Rate check: inside NerdWallet's 6% to 8% typical DSCR loan range Tax (assumed): $300 per month Insurance (assumed): $150 per month Total payment: $1,714 per month DSCR on the trailing rent roll: $2,200 / $1,714 = about 1.28
Now stress the rent the way a downtown delivery wave can. The table holds the payment constant and changes only the rent counted.
| Line | Trailing rent | 5% vacancy | $100 per unit renewal cut | Both |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Line Monthly rent counted | Trailing rent $2,200 | 5% vacancy $2,090 | $100 per unit renewal cut $2,000 | Both $1,900 |
| Line Full monthly payment | Trailing rent $1,714 | 5% vacancy $1,714 | $100 per unit renewal cut $1,714 | Both $1,714 |
| Line DSCR | Trailing rent 1.28 | 5% vacancy 1.22 | $100 per unit renewal cut 1.17 | Both 1.11 |
| Line Loan that holds 1.25 | Trailing rent $196,900 | 5% vacancy $183,700 | $100 per unit renewal cut $172,900 | Both $160,800 |
Assumptions: 30-year amortization at 7.00%, tax $300 and insurance $150 per month, for illustration only.
The point is not that rents will fall by these amounts. It is that a two-unit building has no cushion: one tenant who leaves for a new downtown unit, or one renewal you hold with a discount, moves the ratio more than any rate quote does. If the building is close to the Cherry Street projects, size the loan on the stressed column you can defend, keep reserves above NerdWallet's three-to-six-month range, and ask lenders whether they will size on in-place leases or on the appraiser's market rent.
How do you get lenders competing for a Green Bay DSCR loan?
You get lenders competing for a Green Bay DSCR loan by sending every one of them the same package, with the leases, a stressed rent case and the target loan size, so you can compare rate, proceeds and prepayment terms side by side. YieldStack is an AI-native commercial mortgage brokerage that arranges financing for commercial real estate investors.
YieldStack's software matches the deal against 20,000+ loan programs, and human brokers then structure the request, negotiate for the borrower and carry the deal toward closing. Every credit decision is made by the lender; YieldStack arranges the introductions and negotiates on the borrower's side, and no loan, rate, or closing is guaranteed.
What to send:
- Property address, parcel number and the current Brown County tax bill
- Current leases or a rent roll for every unit, with renewal dates and who pays which utilities
- Vacancy and turnover history for the last two years
- Your stressed rent case, with the vacancy and renewal assumptions stated
- An insurance quote or the current declarations page
- Purchase contract or payoff statement, target loan amount and how much prepayment penalty you can accept
The Green Bay market hub collects our Green Bay material and the Wisconsin market hub covers the rest of the state; neither is a promise of any particular lender or term. When the package is ready, send the deal for review. It costs Zero upfront to submit a deal and review offers; YieldStack's broker fee is 0.50–1.00% of the loan amount and is paid only at closing.
The bottom line
A DSCR loan on a Green Bay rental comes down to rent over the full payment, and the rent is the uncertain half. The city's own TID plan assumes 329 new Cherry Street apartments on the 2027 tax roll, more than the City of Green Bay permitted in five-plus-unit buildings in all of 2025, and Wisconsin law leaves rent entirely to the market. Size an East Side, Astor Park or downtown-adjacent loan on stressed rent, not the trailing rent roll.