Ground view looking up at a construction crane and high-rise development
Department of Planning & Community & Economic Development

2025 Housing Snapshot Report

Cover of the 2025 Housing Snapshot report showing an assortment of housing developments finished in the last year

The 2025 Housing Snapshot tracks and compares metrics to lead to a clearer understanding of the City of Madison’s housing needs and to gauge progress that City programs, community partners, and housing developers are making over time to improve housing choice. We use a mix of economic, demographic, and housing data from public and private sources to help describe Madison’s housing situation.

Building on data updates from the 2023 Housing Snapshot, this report is reorganized and includes new metrics and data visualizations responsive to 2025 input from the City’s Housing Policy Committee, including a new set of “Example Households” to convey more about who lives here in Madison to a broad audience.

Many takeaways echo the 2023 Housing Snapshot, and both reports continue to inform housing policies and programs. While housing production has increased, growth in housing demand still outpaces new supply and land and construction costs continue to increase rapidly, resulting in continued competition and fewer housing choices, particularly for low-income households.

Here are some 2025 Housing Snapshot highlights:

  • New Housing Construction

    • Over 22,400 homes (of all types) were completed in Madison between 2015–2024, representing a 20% increase in the city's total number of homes. Roughly 45% of these homes have been built close to high-frequency transit service.

  • Rental Housing Market

    • At time of publication, the City’s stabilized rental vacancy rate has risen to 4.8%, approaching a healthy level (typically 5%–7%). The lowest vacancy rates (indicating highest competition) are seen in lower quality, lower cost rental housing.
    • Roughly ¾ of renter-households making over the median income rent housing that would be affordable to low- and moderate-income households, reducing housing choices for these households.
    • Household incomes are diverging more than rent costs, meaning higher-income households have more choices and lower-income households have fewer choices than they did a decade ago.
    • Of the estimated 17,105 households who are either very low-income renters or experiencing homelessness, roughly 1 in 3 are cost-burdened non-student households with a lack of subsidized or otherwise affordable housing.

    • Significant racial and ethnic disparities in rental housing affordability persist, though over the last decade, the rent affordable to a median-income Hispanic or Latino household has risen from below median rent to $200 above median rent, indicating a potential increase in housing choice.

       

    People gathered around a table looking at a 3D printed model of the Triangle redevelopment
    Attendees of the August 2025 groundbreaking at the CDA Triangle examine a 3D printed model of the proposed Triangle redevelopment (scheduled for completion in 2035).

  • Homeownership Market

    • The vacancy rate for owner-occupied housing decreased over the last decade, with the latest available estimate at 0.6% (2023). Indicators tracked monthly by private real estate sources show further tightening in the market over the past decade.
    • 60% of Madison homeowners live in homes that would be affordable to those in a lower income bracket.
    • About ¾ of low-income homeowners (those with incomes below half the median income) are “housing cost-burdened”, which means they pay more than 30% of their income on housing.
    • Homeownership costs are rising faster than incomes, and with the compounding factor of recent high interest rates, it is increasingly difficult to become a first-time home buyer.
    • From 2015–2023, the number of households headed by persons under age 35 increased by approximately 9,500, yet the number of homeowners in this age range increased by only ~124.
    • Rising homeownership rates among Black and Hispanic/Latino households in Madison are promising, yet racial disparities in homeownership are still unacceptable. Only 1 in 5 Black households own homes, while half of White households own homes.

  • Housing Cost Burden

    • Nearly half of all Black households and 30% of White households are housing cost burdened, paying over 30% of their incomes on housing costs.

       

    Construction of a mixed-use building on South Park Street
    With financial support and land donation from the City, Eminent Development Corporation is building this 44-unit mixed use building on South Park Street with a subset of rental homes reserved for youth that are aging out of the foster care system.

  • Housing, Construction, & Inflation Cost Growth

    • Costs of land and construction in the Madison area continue to rise quicker than the Consumer Price Index, which will likely continue to pull housing costs up.

  • Impact of City Funding on Housing Supply

    • The City has provided nearly $47 million in financial support to 2,285 (10%) of the homes completed from 2015–2024. Of those, ¾ preserve long-term affordability for households making less than 60% AMI, and most are located close to Bus Rapid Transit or other frequent transit routes.

  • Individuals Experiencing Homelessness

    • Based on consistent “point-in-time” counts, the number of people facing homelessness in 2025 was near 800, very close to that of 2015. The number of single adults has increased significantly over the past decade.

     

    A group of townhomes under construction
    These townhomes under construction on Ellis Potter Court off of Schroeder Road will house families, but are part of a larger affordable housing development by Horizon Development Group and JW Realty Investments with financial support form the City. The development will include homes reserved for families, older adults, veterans, people with disabilities, and people who have recently experienced homelessness.

  • Tenure Transition in 1-Unit Structures

    • Citywide, the percentage of single-unit homes that are owner-occupied has remained steady at 91–92% since 2021. Neighborhoods are not experiencing trends where a large number of owner-occupied homes are shifting to rental homes.
    • We see on Madison’s far east side dozens of newly constructed single-unit homes intended as rental homes, indicating that with limited supply of new homes for purchase, many seek to rent them.

City leaders and policymakers strive to use tools and data-supported evidence to support more housing choices for Madisonians, especially those with few housing opportunities. Evident in the City’s Housing Forward initiatives, it takes policy change, financial support to housing developers and individual households, and city-led development examples to work together to impact Madison’s tight housing market. City staff will continue to monitor available data over time to gauge Madison’s progress toward more housing choices and a more equitable housing landscape.

The Department of Planning, Community & Economic Development is providing the 2025 Housing Snapshot both in the traditional PDF format and a web-based version. You can navigate the web version using the Chapter links on this page or download the PDF to your own device.

Download the 2025 Housing Snapshot

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