WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – An area planning commission is trying to address the housing issues in Central Wisconsin.
North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission held an open house Wednesday at Wausau City Hall, presenting their plan to gather data to tackle the housing crisis.
New data from the 2020 Census shows households shrank, and more people lived alone. But as those people looked to get out on their own, they face a tough situation: sky high home prices, rising interest rates, and low supply are just a few. It’s affecting everyone from those looking to buy a home all the way to college students and young professionals looking for their first apartment.
“I have three college age children who are all in their rental market, all low end, and it’s just completely impossible.” said one Marathon County resident.
A potential source of those rising prices in older housing could be the need for larger repairs. One man spoke about his struggles to buy his first home. “A lot of millenials probably took, which is I’m going to rent for the rest of my life, and I was ready to abandon that homebuying process,” said Ben Lee, “The only reason we were able to close a deal was because I agree do $8,000 worth of repairs myself.”
But a strategy to combat the issue can’t be made just using Census data, planners said the next step is to identify want versus need in the community, that’s where surveys come into play. “There’s all these logical things we can’t really get at with just Census data and that becomes tricky because I can say, well here’s what we need, but people might say well actually I’m looking for this instead and that gives us insight into what people are looking for, what their challenges are.” said Sam Wessel, AICP Senior Planner for North Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission.
There will be three more open houses held in the Fall, surveys and interviews will take place in the Fall. Surveys are live and can be found online, they do close on October 31st.
A final report will be released in December.
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