By the numbers
Two leading indicators of Wisconsin housing development, single-family building permits and newly platted lots, showed gains in 2025, though both remained well below pre-Great Recession levels.
Permits for single-family house construction increased by 4.1 percent from 12,879 in 2024 to 13,405 in 2025, data from the U.S. Census Bureau show. Building permits represent homes authorized for construction, although some permitted projects are delayed or never completed.
That annual figure is the highest since 2007. The average annual number of permits from 2000 to 2006, prior to the crash, was nearly 25,650.
Another leading indicator of housing development is the platting of new lots, the process by which land is subdivided into parcels. Because many newly platted lots are intended for residential construction, the count provides an early measure of the development pipeline.
The number of lots platted per year ranged from roughly 11,000 to 14,500 in the late 1990s and early 2000s, then increased to around 20,000 per year between 2003 and 2005. Following the market crash and recession, new lots platted fell below 1,300 in 2010.
The platting of new lots has slowly increased since then. In 2025, a total of 6,892 lots were platted, according to figures provided by the Wisconsin Department of Administration, the first time more than 6,000 lots had been platted in one year since 2007. That represented a 28 percent increase over the 2024 total of 5,396. However, as highlighted in a previous Badger Institute report on platting, the recent levels are just a third of the peak of nearly 20,500 lots per year.
Wyatt Eichholz is a policy and legislative associate at the Badger Institute.
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