News of the Day

he Wisconsin REALTORS Association (WRA) has released its January 2026 Real Estate Report, showing new listings fell significantly, leading to tighter inventory statewide.

Compared to a few years ago, there are fewer existing home sales and higher home prices. Existing home sales in Wisconsin fell 3.9% compared to January 2025. The median price rose 7.9% over the past year to $315,000.

Amy Curler, board chair of the WRA, said, “Total listings grew on an annual basis for 28 straight months before declining in January. We suspect this is just a temporary deviation from the trend, and we’re cautiously optimistic that the spring and summer markets will see growing inventories.”

Despite higher house prices, the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell 86 basis points from January 2025 to January 2026. This helped lift the Wisconsin Housing Affordability Index by 2.2 percent, which is its highest level since January 2024.

The strongest home sale price increases were seen in the Northeast, with an increase of 11%, and the Southeast with 10%.

In his eighth and final State of the State address Tuesday night, Gov. Tony Evers said Republicans have chronically underfunded Wisconsin schools and blamed them for increased property taxes after negotiations for a tax cut stalled this week.

In comments to reporters after the speech, Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said negotiations would continue and he remains “optimistic” about the prospects for a tax and spending deal.

That work likely won’t include approval of a $2.3 billion package that Republicans sent him this week, which included a tax rebate plan.

“Local property taxes go up when the state fails to do its part to meet its obligation,” said Evers, calling for a plan to get “meaningful resources to K-12 schools and provide property tax relief.”

“And it must balance these important obligations a heck of a lot better than the plan Republican leaders sent me this week,” he added.

With the state Assembly due to wrap up business this week, Evers called on lawmakers to stay in Madison and said he’d call a special session of the Legislature in the coming weeks with the goal of banning partisan gerrymandering. The governor has the power to call a special session but no power over how legislators conduct it

After the speech ended, Republican leaders said Evers was claiming credit for victories secured by their party in the Legislature.

In a televised speech, Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu said Wisconsin is strong “despite the governor, not because of him.”

“If the Democrats were in charge in Madison, Wisconsin would be a very different place. Jobs would flee to other states. … Our increasingly mobile workforce would leave for states with lower income tax rates,” he said. “Thankfully, that’s not reality. And thanks to the state Legislature, the state of our state is strong.”

While median wages in Wisconsin have kept pace with inflation over the last 25 years, many essential household costs have risen much faster than wages and overall inflation.

That’s according to a new report from Forward Analytics, the research arm of the Wisconsin Counties Association. It highlights the rising costs for essential expenses like housing and healthcare as the primary constraint on household budgets across the state.

Preliminary estimates show that median household incomes in Wisconsin rose by 90 percent from 2000 to 2025, while overall costs of goods and services measured by the Consumer Price Index have increased by 87 percent during the same period, the report states.

Much of a household’s typical budget is tied up in goods and services that are hard to reduce, substitute or eliminate, like housing, health care, transportation and education, the report notes.

The report looked at cost increases across a variety of goods and services, broken down by essential costs and discretionary, or nonessential, costs. Most of the essential costs examined outpaced median incomes, while most discretionary costs decreased over the last 25 years.

The biggest increase among essential costs came from hospital services, which have increased by 274 percent since 2000, the report found.

Those hospital costs include inpatient and outpatient care, and represent the price that’s paid by consumers and by insurance companies toward hospital services.

An administrative law judge has ordered some changes but upheld key state permits for Enbridge’s $450 million plan to reroute an oil and gas pipeline around the reservation of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.

In her decision, Administrative Law Judge Angela Chaput-Foy wrote the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources met state requirements and permitting standards when it issued a wetland and waterway permit, stormwater permit and water quality certification for the Line 5 reroute.

“While the Band expresses concern regarding potential impacts, they have failed to provide evidence demonstrating that the authorized activities will, in fact, violate state water quality standards,” Foy wrote. “The fears that they express are fears; they lack evidence showing that these changes will occur and impact water quality.”

Foy went on to say that environmental groups also failed to show that more baseline data should be required to certify the project meets state water quality standards. Even so, Foy ordered four modifications to Enbridge’s wetlands permit.

Those changes affect monitoring of wetland restoration after construction. They also require more work to assess the risk of artesian aquifer breaches. Enbridge must also clarify it’s obtained a permit for taking a threatened plant in Wisconsin, as well as obtain a separate permit for stabilizing banks within waterways.

Rob Lee, an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates said in a statement there’s a “strong” case for appealing the decision. The group is weighing next steps.

The Trump administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have announced massive changes to the nation’s environmental policy, moving to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding results on which the United States of America’s current emissions regulations are based. President Trump and EPA administrator Lee Zeldin maintain that this is the single largest deregulation action in American history.

Back in 2009, EPA administrator Lisa P. Jackson signed two distinct findings related to the endangerment brought by and causes of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The Obama administration and the EPA moved to limit these specific gases based on the results of the Endangerment Finding study, rolling out tighter emissions regulations for new vehicle fleets and powertrains. Detractors have argued that the EPA does not possess regulatory authority, and that Congress must be involved in establishing emissions rules.

The EPA under Zeldin first proposed rescinding the findings altogether back in July 2025, and has already rolled back tailpipe emissions regulations established by his political predecessors. With this new action, Trump and Zeldin have terminated green emissions standards imposed from 2012 onward, with no plans to impose them beyond 2027. Zeldin announced that the EPA will be advising automakers to kill start-stop technology, which he referred to as the “Obama Switch” during the press conference. (It is important to note that start-stop technology has never been mandated by the government.)

The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) today announced its 2025 Financial Summary of Wisconsin’s Unemployment Insurance (UI) Trust Fund which showed decreased tax rates for employers and an increased overall balance.

The UI Trust Fund is the account that holds Wisconsin employers’ state UI taxes which finance regular state UI benefit payments. The UI Trust Fund functions as a reserve in case of increased state UI benefit payments during economic downturns. The higher the UI Trust Fund balance, the less likely the state will need to borrow from the federal government during recessionary periods.

Highlights of the summary include:

• UI Trust Fund balance as of December 31, 2025 was over $2.1 billion
• $151 billion in wages insured for Wisconsin employees
• Schedule D (lowest tax rate schedule) in effect
• Employers’ UI tax rate is assessed only on the first $14,000 of each employee’s wages and
  • More than 95% of employers had a UI tax rate below 4%
  • More than half of all employers had a UI tax rate below 2%
• Employers saved an estimated $50.5 million in payable taxes in 2025
• Tax rates decreased or remained unchanged for 57.9% of employers in 2025

“Ensuring that the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund remains strong, solvent, and effective for both employers and employees is essential for the continued economic security of our state,” said Secretary Amy Pechacek. “With low unemployment rates and an increasing UI Trust Fund balance, we should continue exploring opportunities to bolster our UI system so it can provide reliable support to workers in the years to come.”

Retail sales were unchanged in December from the prior month, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, down sharply from November’s 0.6% increase. The figures are adjusted for seasonal swings but not inflation.

Retail sales declined across most of the categories tracked by the Commerce Department, falling the most at furniture stores (-0.9%) and at so-called miscellaneous stores (-0.9). Meanwhile, retail spending edged higher in a handful of categories, rising the most at home improvement stores (1.2%.)

A measure of retail sales that strips out volatile categories and gives a better indication of underlying demand — widely known as the control group — fell 0.1% in December.

Legislation to regulate fully autonomous vehicles in Wisconsin came under fire during an Assembly committee hearing, as members of the public raised concerns around safety and reliability.

Meanwhile, authors of AB 848 said Wisconsin is falling behind the dozens of other states with similar regulations on the books.

Rep. Dave Maxey, R-New Berlin, testified yesterday before the Assembly Committee on Transportation, arguing Wisconsin’s unique weather conditions provide an opportunity for proving self-driving vehicles can operate safely in the state.

“If we can’t test these vehicles in all weather conditions, like snow and rain, and with different vehicle types, unfortunately we won’t know that they are safe,” he said.

The legislation would establish an autonomous driving safety board within the state Department of Transportation as well as a permitting process for companies that want to operate such vehicles in Wisconsin, Maxey said.

Operators would have to meet various registration and insurance requirements under the bill’s framework, and the board would be able to designate specific highways for autonomous vehicle operation, he said. The board would also have the power to require safety reports on these vehicles as well as suspend or revoke permits when safety issues occur.

Maxey argued the bill would provide clarity by allowing self-driving vehicles to operate “without facing a patchwork of local restrictions” while also establishing strong safeguards for the technology.

But several speakers from the motorcyclist rights and safety group Abate of Wisconsin spoke against the bill, questioning self-driving vehicles’ ability to detect motorcycles, bicyclists and pedestrians. Members of the organization argued public roadways aren’t the appropriate testing ground for these vehicles.

The bill’s co-sponsor, Sen. Rachel Cabral-Guevara, said she views fully autonomous vehicles as “the way of the future,” arguing the technology will be coming to Wisconsin at some point.

“Right now, 35 other states have this in some capacity. We do not,” she said.

Maxey also said autonomous vehicles have the potential to expand transportation options for those who currently lack reliable access, pointing to older adults, people with disabilities and residents of rural areas.

“At the same time, this bill helps Wisconsin stay competitive,” he said. “States like Texas and California and Minnesota are already using testing, or deploying autonomous vehicles and seeing benefits from early regulation.”

Working natural gas stocks fell 360 billion cubic feet (Bcf) in the Lower 48 states for the week ending January 30, 2026, amid Winter Storm Fern—the largest weekly net withdrawal reported in the history of the Weekly Natural Gas Storage Report. The withdrawal exceeded the five-year average for the same week by 89% (170 Bcf). The large withdrawals resulted from increased heating demand for natural gas and natural gas production curtailments because of severe winter weather. Working gas stocks are now 1.1% below the five-year average for this time of year.

Several factors contributed to the large withdrawals:

• Winter Storm Fern: A massive winter storm brought extreme cold, heavy snow, and ice across a large portion of the Lower 48 states from New Mexico to New England.
• Increased heating demand: The extreme cold increased demand for space heating, leading to increased natural gas consumption in the residential and commercial sectors, and increased demand for natural gas for electricity generation.
• Reduced natural gas supply: The frigid temperatures resulted in decreased natural gas supply as the extreme cold reduced natural gas production because of equipment freeze-offs and shut-ins. Temperatures along the U.S. Gulf Coast averaged below freezing on January 25, contributing to the largest shut-in reported during the week.

The increased demand and decreased supply of natural gas contributed to rising prices at many locations. The U.S. benchmark natural gas spot price at the Henry Hub rose to $9.03 per million British thermal units (MMBtu) on January 28, exceeding the week-earlier price by $4.05/MMBtu and the year-earlier price by $5.60/MMBtu. Natural gas storage withdrawals can supplement other sources of supply during periods of higher prices.

The number of open jobs in the U.S. economy fell by nearly one million last year, evidence of how demand for workers has sputtered in an uneven labor market.

In December, there were just over 6.5 million open positions, down from about 7.5 million at the end of 2024, according to the Labor Department’s monthly report on job openings and labor turnover. Four years ago, at the height of the postpandemic economic boom, openings peaked at more than 12 million.

The Jolts report brought other signs that while the labor market has weakened, it hasn’t collapsed. The number of people who were hired into new jobs improved slightly in December to 5.3 million, and was roughly unchanged from a year ago. December also brought a slight increase in the tally of people who left their job voluntarily, typically a healthy sign that workers are finding new opportunities.

Layoffs ticked higher at the end of last year, but remain relatively subdued overall. The layoff rate ended 2025 at 1.1%, roughly unchanged from a year ago.