Anyone who has thought about buying or selling a house recently knows prices are up, interest rates are up, and more people seem to be locked out of owning a home.

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. Here & Now asked 2026 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 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 price people out or just charge whatever they want to charge, and where else are people gonna go? That’s the first thing we got to do,” said former Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, a Democratic candidate.

‘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. There are administrative rules and making sure like, how you can build, what type of permits that you need. And then there’s funding. 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,” said Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, a Democratic candidate

“Housing 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, 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 were 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,” said former Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation CEO Missy Hughes, a Democratic candidate.

“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 trust, 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,” said state Rep. Francesca Hong, a Democratic candidate.

“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 WHEDA 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 with as soon as I become governor,” said former Wisconsin Department of Administration Sec. Joel Brennan, a Democratic candidate.

“So, 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 getting rid of duplication by about 25%. They reduce the cost of building a new home by about $24,000. We’ve seen studies by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & 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,” said U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, a Republican candidate.

“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. 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,” said Milwaukee County Exec. David Crowley, a Democratic candidate.

“The state should both be 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 housing online quickly,” said state Sen. Kelda Roys, a Democratic candidate.