A new report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum finds that while permitting rates for building new housing have increased since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, they still trail permitting levels in the early 2000s.
Mark Sommerhauser, policy researcher and communications director for the Wisconsin Policy Forum, told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” that building levels stayed relatively low for years after the 2008 financial collapse.
The forum’s report looked at the rates of both single and multifamily housing permitting statewide. They found that the state’s peak permit activity was between 2002 and 2004. Over the past three years, both types of permitting were down, with single-family permitting rates being nearly half of 2002-2004 levels.
Since 2021, data show a stark divergence in the types of housing projects that are receiving permits.
“There’s just very little question that statewide, in virtually every metro area, we’ve seen a really significant uptick in multifamily housing permitting,” Sommerhauser said. “What we have not necessarily seen is a corresponding increase in single-family (permitting).”
Single-family permitting increased by around 21 percent in recent years. But that’s compared to a greater-than 60 percent increase in multifamily permitting.
Sommerhauser said certain factors like the cost of building materials and mortgage interest rates are out of the control of state or local policymakers. At the state level, he said policymakers can focus on tax cuts or regulatory changes to make construction cheaper.