Housing Snapshot Data Sources
(Note: This page is part of the 2025 Housing Snapshot report)
American Community Survey (ACS)
On an annual basis, the U.S. Census releases a variety of demographic data estimated from samples of the population. Generally, data are available as 1-Year or 5-Year estimates (e.g., for 2023, 5-Year estimates rely on samples gathered from 2019–2023, which improves the quality of the estimates), and the data estimates released lag by one to two years. The 2025 Housing Snapshot relies heavily on ACS 5-Year Estimates from 2015 to 2023, citing specific tables when relevant.
American Community Survey Data
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS)
The Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Surveys provide estimates for a wide variety of common consumer expenditures by income “deciles.” Though not cited precisely, September 2024 estimated percent of income spent on transportation, housing, and food were used as baseline information to help create the breakdown of expenditures for 12 example households (see “Example Households”)
Consumer Expenditure Survey Tables
Calculator.net
This website allows for anyone to derive the affordable purchase price for a home based on income, interest rate, local tax rates, and a variety of other inputs. This report uses the calculator to estimate the price affordable to younger households over time using July interest rates on a 30-year mortgage from the past decade (from Freddie Mac), an assumption of 20% downpayment, and a local mill rate of 1.86%.
House Affordability Calculator
Community Coordinated Childcare, Inc. (4C)
4C is a Dane County Wisconsin non-profit organization that provides regional childcare data in South Central Wisconsin. This report utilized estimated childcare costs from 2024 in Madison for a variety of ages and household income levels to help inform estimated expenditures of example households (see “Example Households”).
Child Care Data & Publications
Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS)
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) receives custom tabulations of ACS data demonstrating the extent of housing problems and housing needs, particularly for low-income households. CHAS data breaks down ACS data into categories that can be better utilized to determine housing needs for households based on income, race, household type, and other variables. The release of CHAS data estimates lags that of ACS by about 2 years, resulting in a 4-year lag overall. The Housing Snapshot relies heavily on CHAS estimates for 2021, and future availability of this data source is uncertain.
Consolidated Planning/CHAS Data
City of Madison
These City agencies contributed data supporting sections of the 2025 Housing Snapshot:
Assessor’s Office: 2021–2025 owner and property addresses for single-family homes (see “Tenure Transition in 1-Unit Structures”); Land costs in Madison (see “Housing, Construction, and Inflation Cost Growth”).
Building Inspection Division: 2015–2025 building permit data, including building permits issued and certificates of occupancy issued (see “New Housing Construction”).
Community Development Division: Affordable Housing Fund expenditures and data from Land Use Restriction Agreements (LURAs) pertaining to income and rent restrictions on new affordable housing completed 2015–2024 (see “Impact of City Funding on Housing Supply”); Point-in-time counts for those experiencing homelessness (see “Individuals Experiencing Homelessness”).
Economic Development Division: Tax Increment Financing (TIF) expenditures to support new housing development completed 2015–2024 (see “Impact of City Funding on Housing Supply”)
Planning Division: Population and Household Projections from the 2023 City of Madison Comprehensive Plan Update (see “City Growth Trends”)
2023 Comprehensive Plan Progress Update
CoStar
CoStar is a private company with proprietary data including real estate market analytics provided for a fee to commercial brokers, government entities, and others. CoStar tracks professionally managed rental properties and provides summary data for the Madison region including vacancy rates, average cost of rental housing, and more. While detailed data is not publicly available, this report summarizes key rental housing metrics CoStar tracks over time (see “Rental Vacancy Rates” and “Rental Cost Increases and Affordability”).
This report also references CoStar's five-star Building Rating System, which is based on quality, architectural design, amenities, and other factors as follows:
- 5-Star: Top-tier, state-of-the-art luxury buildings
- 4-Star: High-quality structures with above-average amenities
- 3-Star: Average- quality older buildings, usually mid-priced
- 2-Star: Functional buildings with bare-minimum amenities
- 1-Star: Older properties often requiring major renovations
Freddie Mac
The 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States [MORTGAGE30US] (specifically the July interest rate for each year), retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, is used to compute the annual home price affordable to the median income Madison household with a householder 25–44 years old (see “Starter Homes and Younger Households”)
30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage Average in the United States (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis)
Madison Gas and Electric (MG&E)
Rental vacancy data 2015–2021 based on status of electrical service. After 2021, data was no longer publicly available (see “Rental Vacancy Rates”).
Redfin
Redfin is a private Multiple Listing Service (MLS) aggregator, and lists monthly data at a City level for housing for sale, including Number of Months Supply, Inventory, Average Number of Days on Market, and Sale to List Price Ratio (see “Other Ownership Indicators”).
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)
USDA Food & Nutrition Service publishes a series of “monthly food cost” reports. To help inform estimated food costs for “Example Households”, we used September 2025 estimates from food plans ranging from “Thrifty” to “Liberal”, depending on the income of the household and other considerations.
Monthly Cost of Food Reports (U.S. Department of Agriculture)
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WIDNR) Open Data
The WIDNR hosts a portal with a wide variety of data focused on the State of Wisconsin, including “Housing Burden”. This dataset references ESRI’s compilation of American Community Survey (ACS) 2023 5-year estimates for income and housing costs at the Census Tract level. For this report, we used data for UW–Madison Campus area Census Tracts (specifically 9.02, 11.02, 16.03, 16.04, 16.05, 16.06, 17.04, and 32) to estimate the number of very low-income renter households assumed to be students. The estimated number of renter households in the campus area that spent more than 50% of their income on housing costs is used as a proxy for student households with very low incomes (typical for students with part-time or no employment). Importantly, this is a rough estimate of 7,595, with a margin of error of 1,953, meaning that there are likely between 5,642 and 9,548 student renter households in the area with very low incomes, likely renting housing with some financial support from family members or other sources. We’ve used 7,600 as the estimated number of student households to help derive the number of non-student households with very low incomes who have significant unmet housing needs (see “Renter Households with the Most Significant Unmet Needs”).
Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority (WHEDA)
Each spring, WHEDA publishes income levels and rent restrictions associated with household eligibility and maximum costs for subsidized rental housing. Income and rent levels are set separately for each Wisconsin county and for households ranging in size from 1-person to 9 people. The report frequently references income and rents set for Dane County, WI for a range of low-and moderate income households and extrapolates incomes by household size to estimate the median household income by household size.
Wisconsin Standard Mulitfamily Tax Subsidy Project Estimated Maximum Income and Rent Limits (WHEDA)
Zillow
Zillow is a real estate and technology company that publishes monthly value estimates for a range of housing types and geographic areas in the U.S. The report shares Zillow’s estimated values of the “Bottom Tier” (homes within the 5th to 35th percentile range), “Typical” (homes within the 35th to 65th percentile range), and “Top Tier” (homes within the 65th to 95th percentile range) in the City of Madison from July 2015 to July 2025 (see “Home Costs and Purchasing Power”). The report also shares Zillow’s estimated average values for “Typical Condominium/Co-op” homes and “2 Bedroom” homes (see “Starter Homes and Younger Households”)