Thursday, Apr. 30, 2026
Have Wisconsin home prices doubled in the last three years?
The median price of a Wisconsin home has increased significantly in the past few years, but it has not doubled.
Median means half the sale prices were higher and half were lower.
The latest full-year figures:
2025: $325,000
2024: $310,000
2023: $285,000
2022: $265,000
The 2025 median was 23% higher than in 2022.
In each of the first three months of 2026, the median price was higher year-over-year compared with 2025.
The last time the median decreased was in 2011.
Experts say the COVID-19 pandemic and a 2022 interest rate spike in 2022 caused homeowners to postpone or cancel plans to sell. The smaller supply pushed prices higher.
Also, construction costs have risen and new home building has not kept pace with population increases.
In 2023, the Republican-led Legislature and Democratic Gov. Tony Evers allocated $500 million toward loan programs aimed at creating affordable housing.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Wisconsin Realtors Association: Wisconsin Housing Statistics, as of April 27, 2026
- Wisconsin Policy Forum: Home Prices Outpace Incomes
- Wisconsin Watch: Wisconsin faces a housing affordability crisis. Here’s how lawmakers and candidates for governor plan to address it.
- Kurt Paulsen, University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of urban planning Email
About fact briefs
Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by newsrooms in the Gigafact network.
See all fact briefs
Wisconsin Watch, the news arm of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, increases the quality and quantity of investigative reporting in Wisconsin, while training current and future investigative journalists. Its work fosters an informed citizenry and strengthens democracy.
Learn MoreLatest Fact Briefs
Is golf ball-sized hail expected to increase due to climate change?
Thursday, Apr. 23, 2026
Is Wisconsin projected to need 200,000 more homes to meet demand by 2030?
Monday, Apr. 20, 2026