matter, from sports betting and constitute sports
betting under Wisconsin law. >> Anyone who has thought
about buying or selling a house recently knows prices
are up, interest rates remain higher, and more
people seem to be locked out of owning a home. In
our continuing series, looking at the biggest
issues in the race for governor "Here& Now",
senior political reporter Zac Schultz asked the
candidates for governor about what the state should
do to help fix the affordable housing crisis.
>> A 2024 study by the Wisconsin Policy Forum
showed. Over a five year stretch, home prices went
up 53% while incomes rose by less than 20%. State
government can't lower the price of materials or labor,
but it can create an environment making it
easier to build new homes. So we asked the candidates
for governor how they plan to address the affordable
housing crisis in Wisconsin. >> So the plan to increase
affordable housing is to ensure that we put a stop
on corporate monopolies that are buying up
wholesale properties. This is going on in Milwaukee.
These these monopolies are making it difficult for
first time homeowners. These monopolies are making
it easy or, excuse me, making it more difficult
for people to be able to afford rent because if they
own all the properties they can, they can price people
out or just charge whatever they want to charge. And
where else are people going to go?
>> We need to look at it as a three legged stool. There
is the legislation that we have to make sure that we
have laws that allow us to build affordable housing.
rules and making sure, like, you know, how you can build
what type of permits that you need. And then there's
funding. And right now, there is nobody who is
looking at all three of those things to make sure
that they're aligned. So as governor, I would assign
somebody to make sure that they are looking at housing
overall, having a statewide strategic plan to make sure
that we have some of those starter homes that we
certainly don't have in Wisconsin anymore.
>> Housing is a is a vexing problem, but it is not
insurmountable. And what we've seen at WEDC, the
work that we did was to support innovative housing,
housing, whether it's bringing a nursing home
into housing, a nursing home that's closed in
Gilman, we were able to support making that into
apartments or schools that have closed due to lack of
population, turning those into housing. But we are
also seeing new housing being built. And so what I
would want to do is make sure that local communities
have the resources they need to provide the
infrastructure, the water, the sewer for new housing,
but then also making sure that we're supporting
developers all around the state as they make the move
to build housing. >> We have to have a
multi-pronged approach, and we have to make it easier
to build housing and look at different avenues and
innovative ways to ensure that we have permanent
affordability when it comes to housing. I'm interested
in looking at community land trusts about how we
can provide better zoning regulations and the ability
to build ADUs and ensure that we have spaces for
some folks who may no longer need to be in their
homes. Where there can be starter homes for folks who
are moving into communities and looking at diversifying
our housing stock for folks who are moving or maybe
downsizing. >> Wisconsin likely needs a
top to bottom housing plan where we can look at all
aspects of this, and there are tools at our disposal
that we have through Wida that I'm not sure that we
are using to the best of our abilities. And if we
need new tools, we'll go out and get them. But this
is kind of the core of affordability for Wisconsin
families, is ensuring that they have a safe and secure
place to put a roof over their head, that they can
build equity, that they can build wealth for their
family over time. So that's one of the issues that I
look forward to working on as soon as I become
governor. >> Well, first of all, we
need to get control of property taxes. At a
minimum, freeze them. I would get rid of the 400
year property tax increase, but I think we can do a lot
of it via regulatory reform. And I refer to it as a red
tape review. You look at the state of Virginia, they
did something like this, and they reduced their
regulations largely by by about 25%. They reduced
the cost of building a new home by about $24,000.
We've seen studies by the Wisconsin Institute for Law
and Liberty, where they've said as much as $80,000
goes in to the cost of a new home. That has nothing
to do with building materials. So I think we
can get control of some of that by reducing
duplication in regulations. >> It's important to
understand that there isn't a one size solution that
fits all of the problems that we're facing as a
state. What works in Milwaukee may not work in
Menasha, may not work in Marinette, may not work in
Barron. And so we have to make sure that we're
working with those local organizations, those local
units of government, to figure out what right size
solution works for them. Yes. Do we need more
affordable housing? Absolutely we do. We need
that for our seniors, for working families, for
people with disabilities. But we also need attainable
housing as well. And attainable housing is those
who have the ability to afford those who may not
qualify for affordable housing, but have the means
to buy their own home. Yet we don't have the housing
stock. doing more to incent
development projects, helping local governments
make zoning changes to allow for more housing to
be built, and to allow more flexibility in how we use
our dollars so that we can actually get more bang for
our buck in terms of building new housing. But
ultimately, this is really a supply and demand problem.
We have too much need for housing and not enough
houses being built, and it's been that way for
since the Bush recession. We've underbuilt housing
and now we're really reaping the consequences.
So we just have to get more So we just have to get more