Housing Costs in the Milwaukee metro

The past few years have seen housing costs have change dramatically in Milwaukee, even as the market, in terms of buying and selling, has cooled. This web resource explores those trends in more detail. It is a companion to this article by Mike Gousha and John Johnson, recently published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It continues the Luber Center’s years-long focus on housing in Milwaukee.

Section 1 compares changes in the price of houses and, more importantly, the cost of buying them across the Milwaukee metro. We contrast these increased costs with the slower growth in wages. Many professions have been entirely priced out of many markets.

Section 2 looks at changes in rents. Rents have grown much less quickly than purchase prices, more closely matching wage gains. Consequently, the cost-benefit calculation of renting vs. buying has changed significantly.

Section 3 contains some statistics about the volume of home sales and the mix of buyers and sellers in the City of Milwaukee specifically. Overall home sales are down, the large private equity firms have stopped buying, and the ranks of owner-occupiers are still growing, albeit more slowly than in the past.

Section 4 concludes with some observations about how these housing market trends have markedly different effects on people in different life stages.