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Wisconsin IDEA
Insight • Data • Economics • Analysis
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Housing Affordability A Challenge for Wisconsin Homeowners and Renters
ust Over 22 Percent of Homeowners, 43 Percent of Renters in the State are Cost-Burdened
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The Community Development Institute at UW-Madison’s Division of Extension recently hosted a housing symposium that considered the role of housing in community and household economic well-being. Not surprisingly, housing affordability was a common theme mentioned by speakers and participants alike. While housing affordability can be assessed using a variety of measures, the presence of households who are “cost-burdened” is a basic, commonly used indicator of housing cost stress. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) defines cost-burdened households as those that “pay more than 30 percent of their income for housing.”
Nationally, 27.4% of owner-occupied housing units with a mortgage were cost-burdened during the 2016-2020 period. Higher shares of cost-burdened owner-occupied units were found in portions of coastal states, throughout the Rocky Mountain region and across many Appalachian counties. Compared to the national average, Wisconsin has a smaller overall share of cost-burdened owner-occupied housing units (22.2%). Nonetheless, several Wisconsin counties, including Menominee, Iron, Adams, Forest, Sawyer, and Vilas, had more than 30% of owner-occupied housing units above the cost-burdened threshold. Several of these counties have high shares of seasonal and recreational housing that influence prices for owner-occupied housing.
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Econ Quiz: Summer Employment
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According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and analysis by Pew Research Center, from the late 1940s to the late 1980s overall levels of youth summer employment reacted to the greater economy in a fairly predictable way. Youth employment increased when the economy was doing well, decreased during recessions, and bounced back at the tail end of recovery as overall employment levels returned to normal.
That trend changed in the early 1990s when youth summer employment levels failed to bounce back to after the recessions of 1990-91, 2001, and 2007-09. Today’s quiz question looks at youth summer employment recovery in the wake of the pandemic and asks, is the recovery in youth employment after the pandemic more like recoveries from the late 1940s to the late 1980s, or more like recent recoveries?
Overall youth employment levels peaked at 77.5% in 1989 when Gen X’ers took over the summer workforce. Millennials and Gen Z participated in summer employment at lower rates for a variety of reasons including an increased emphasis on school performance and extra-curricular involvement, among other things. When we last reported on this topic, 60.6% of youth ages 16 to 24 were employed in the summer of 2018, rising to 61.8% of youth employed in the summer of 2019.
Although exact numbers vary from year to year, the leisure and hospitality industry provides summer employment for roughly one in four working youth in the typical summer, the retail industry employs one in five, and education/health services employs slightly more than one in ten. These sectors suffered in 2020, and youth employment decreased to 57.3% in that summer as a result. Youth employment did recover in the summer of 2021, but did the recovery resemble pre-1990s bounce back or the more recent bounce backs?
What percentage of all youth, ages 16 to 24, were employed in the summer of 2021?
A. 61.8%
B. 72.1%
C. 53.2%
D. 60.5%
E. 58.4%
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The Rise Of Entrepreneurship During the Pandemic
Thursday, June 9, 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm (CST)
Join us as Dr. Tessa Conroy discusses entrepreneurial activity in Wisconsin during the COVID-19 pandemic. Entrepreneurship is a key part of any healthy economy but ensuring that new business activity leads to significant economic impact by creating high-quality jobs can be difficult. Join us to hear about entrepreneurial activity in the state and discuss what communities can do to take a lead role in helping entrepreneurs grow and be successful.
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| Recovery in the Hotel Business: How COVID-19 has Impacted the Wisconsin Lodging Industry
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Hotels provide an important service to our communities and represent a significant economic engine for jobs, business revenue, and taxes. Plus, they often serve as a gateway to a community, influencing perceptions of the broader community. However, this industry has experienced significant challenges due to the pandemic and changing travel behaviors, both in the US and in Wisconsin. While historically a volatile real estate asset, hotels can provide a favorable return on investment, based in part on room rates, occupancy levels and cost controls.
In this issue of Downtown Economics, we start with a summary of US trends in lodging based on the recently released Outlook 2022 published by the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Specifically, we summarize the work provided by this organization in measuring year-over-year activity and changes in the market. Based on the AHLA trends, we examine Wisconsin trends as shared by two hotel experts who have each devoted 30 years of their careers to the development of hotels in Wisconsin and beyond. We close with a few ways the industry may change as a result of COVID-19 and other global issues.
Takeaways
- Hotels are an essential amenity to attract tourists and visitors to your community.
- The US hotel industry was significantly impacted in the year 2022 by COVID-19.
- Wisconsin hotel performance is also recovering.
- Wisconsin lodging performance, beyond hotels, includes an increasingly popular type of overnight accommodation called a marketplace rental (such as Airbnb).
- The development pipeline for new hotels remains cautious.
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In Our Words: New Podcast Launches
In Our Words: Black Entrepreneurs Speak Wisconsin, is a weekly podcast exploring in-depth conversations with Wisconsin black business owners. Eight episodes are now available for streaming. The podcast is hosted by entrepreneur and UW-Madison graduate, Rajon Hall, and supported by the Entrepreneur of Color Business Support Team at UW-Madison, Extension.
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(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - 5/9/2022)
(WTMJ-TV4 Milwaukee - 4/29/2022)
(WisBusiness.com - 4/26/2022)
(Channel 3000 - 4/18/2022)
(The Economic Times - 4/15/2022)
(Capital Times - 4/13/2022)
(Rice Lake Chronotype - 4/12/2022)
(WAOW New 9 TV - 4/1/2022)
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Equal Employment Opportunity & Affirmative Action Statements
An EEO/AA employer, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension provides equal opportunities in employment and programming, including Title VI, Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act requirements. Please make requests for reasonable accommodations to ensure equal access to our educational programs as early as possible preceding the scheduled program, service, or activity.
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