this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2023
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Milwaukee
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The most powerful factor in housing prices is the ratio of supply to demand. While the trends of corporate landlords getting larger and diminished proportion of new non-rental housing are concerning, building more housing of any type helps resist across-the-board price increases. Madison over the past few years is unfortunately a great example of what happens to the cost of housing when there isn't enough supply.
More housing is always better than less housing. Something tells me that these are going to be "Luxury Apartments" though (priced at something like $2500/mo) and folks who are downsizing will willingly pay it because only 25 total condo units have been built in Milwaukee since 2011. We need more housing to drive down costs but we need more housing in more categories (market-rate apartments, luxury apartments, and especially condos).
I'm honestly surprised there have been so few new condo developments in Milwaukee since 2008 or so -- especially in downtown, with how much the population there has grown. I'm going through the process of purchasing one right now and one would think that there would be far more of them, or even new developments on the horizon, but no :S
I wonder if part of it is due to lower exposure to the idea. I didn't know the combination of private ownership of living space plus shared ownership of common space was even a thing that people did until some relatives purchased a condo unit a few years back. Since my introduction to the idea back then, though, it really feels like one of the best ways to go.
I have a single-family home in Glendale and I think that I would like to switch to a condo at some point just so I have less of a reason to be around all of the time. I like to travel and with winters in Wisconsin getting colder and my desire to be cold decreasing with each polar vortex, I figured that renting a place in Mexico for 2-3mo every year might be nice. It's harder to do that when you have to maintain a SFH while you are away.