Racine is probably your best bet at looking for "value" in southeastern WI. If you want to be closer to Milwaukee, Oak Creek, Cudahy, South Milwaukee are somewhat reasonable.......Franklin is starting to get a little pricey, but there are some southern suburbs of MKE that are still not to bad (but stay away from the north and west suburbs - $$$ ).

We don't have a basement right now and to be honest, it kinda sucks.

In case you were wondering.......

As a profession, I work in commercial real estate. So although I do not work directly with single family residential, I have a pretty good grasp of what the real estate markets are doing.

Good luck on your hunt!