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Governments start taking steps to allow more construction, but policies at many levels add up to make land scarce and costly
The Madison area has the most expensive homes in Wisconsin — the median single-family home price in the metro area topped $490,000 in the second quarter of 2026, according to the National Association of Realtors.
That puts Madison among the 50 costliest metros nationwide, worse than Milwaukee (about $467,000) and Green Bay (around $370,000).
Yet most of Dane County remains farmland, grassland, or other open land that would seem to be an obvious place for single-family homes in a county that’s grown by more than 100,000 people since 2010. Experts project Dane County’s population, 600,000, could grow by 150,000 to 275,000 people by 2050: Can homes be built for them?
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Badger Institute
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Robert VerBruggen is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where he provides policy research, writes for City Journal, and contributes to special projects and initiatives in the president's office.