Builders, industry group share what en­courages new home building

What You Need To Know

•     New home building starts were up about 4% between 2024 and 2025
•     Building material prices remain high, which creates a challenge for some builders
•     Luxury homebuilders, such as Victory Homes, say demand has been strong
•     WBA is optimistic that new legislation will encourage smaller home development

A lack of housing inventory generally drives up prices for buyers. In recent months, Milwaukee, Kenosha and Appleton have all been ranked by Realtor.com as some of the hottest housing markets in the country, largely due to a lack of available homes, including new-builds.  

The Wisconsin Builders Association keeps stats on new-home starts in the state. The data shows new home builds are up, but only slightly.

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Leo's notes: Builders cited elevated material costs, lot availability, and zoning requirements—particularly minimum lot sizes and density restrictions—as ongoing barriers to delivering workforce housing at attainable price points. Industry leaders are hopeful that recent state legislation and local zoning reforms will help expand opportunities for smaller, more affordable housing developments. Therefore, according to this article, the housing challenge is increasingly less about demand and more about the cost and complexity of delivering supply. While material and labor costs remain significant hurdles, local land-use policies often determine whether workforce housing can be built at all. Interesting first look into builder’s sentiments.

Ken Notes: We need to partner with developers to build workforce housing with denser neighborhoods, nicer amenities, and well designed homes. We can do this but we need to thing differently about housing and neighborhoods.