Weekly Fiscal Facts are provided by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education. The Wisconsin Public Policy Forum logo can be downloaded here.
High rent burdens in Wisconsin often due to low wages, not high rents
Among the counties with the biggest gaps between median rents and median household incomes, eight have renter household incomes below the state median, including five (Langlade, Iron, Eau Claire, Adams, and Vilas) with median rental prices lower than statewide. This suggests that low renter incomes, as opposed to high rents, may be the primary factor causing housing affordability challenges in those counties.
Five of the 10 most rent-burdened counties have rental prices that exceed the state median, but only Dane County’s median rent is at least 10 percent above the state’s. In fact, Dane County’s median rent of $942 is 19.4 percent higher than statewide, which suggests that high rents may be a bigger factor there.
This information is a service of the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the state’s leading resource for nonpartisan state and local government research and civic education.
