New Housing Completions Surpass 2025 Total

Yes. More than 2,000 new housing units are needed every year just to keep up with the number of new households coming to Madison, and that does not address the backlog of new homes needed to address low vacancy rates that drive up the cost of housing. Hundreds of additional housing units beyond that baseline of 2,000 per year need to be built just to begin to slow housing cost increases and improve vacancy rates. 

Data over the last two decades show that slower housing production does not slow population growth, household creation, or in-migration. During the 13-year period between 2006 and 2019 (after which housing production began increasing), approximately 19,000 housing units were built in Madison, while the number of households increased over by 24,000.

Slow housing growth and consistent population growth places the burden of the tight housing market on the city's lowest-income households, who cannot compete with higher earners who could otherwise afford newly constructed housing, but end up paying higher rents for established, naturally occurring affordable housing.

What someone considers “affordable housing" can vary by household size and income, but when the City of Madison references affordable housing, it uses the standards set by the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA), which produces updated calculations every year based on the Area Median Income (AMI) for each county across the state.  

Under those standards, “affordable housing" is generally considered a home that would cost a renter making 60% of the AMI or a homeowner making 80% of the AMI no more than 30% their monthly income. 

To put that definition into dollars and cents: Dane County's Median Area Income in 2026 is $94,800 for a single-person household or $135,300 for a four-person household – meaning 60% of Dane County's AMI would translate to $56,880 for a single-person household or $81,180 for a four-person household. Households making up to 60% AMI would likely qualify for most of the affordable housing that received City subsidies (whether through the Affordable Housing Fund or TIF). 

The Housing Tracker counts the number of affordable homes created that received those subsidies. There are additional affordable housing opportunities across Madison that did not receive City subsidies, but City staff generally do not have access to that data.

Area Median Income measures the median – meaning the middle, not the average – of the salary range for an area. Using the median income – with half of the people in the area making more, and half of the people in the area making less – provides a more accurate picture of the midpoint of incomes in an area, since an average may be skewed by extremely high or extremely low incomes.