MON AM News: Three WI metros rated among top 20 U.S. housing markets; Baldwin touting bill aimed at protecting workers in hot conditions

July 28, 2025

— Three metro areas in Wisconsin were rated among the top 20 housing markets in the country based on expected home value appreciation and quality of life.

The Summer 2025 Housing Market Ranking report, from the Wall Street Journal and real estate listings site Realtor.com, included an analysis of housing market data as well as “economic vitality” and lifestyle metrics. It looked at the 200 largest metro areas in the country.

The top-rated housing market list included Appleton at No. 8, Green Bay at No. 13 and the Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis area at No. 18. Several others in the top 20 were located in other Midwest states, including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio.

Report authors note “buyers largely remained on the sidelines” across the country in late spring and early summer despite inventory levels getting a boost this year.

“This trend is evident in the dominance of Northeastern and Midwestern metropolitan areas, reflecting a shift toward more attainable housing markets,” they wrote.

The Midwest markets that ranked highly have an average population of about 500,000 people, showing many homebuyers are looking to mid-sized metro areas for balancing home prices and quality of life.

The report notes the cost of living is about 7.9% lower than the national level in these areas. And the Midwest markets on the list had an average listing price of $344,000, which is about $100,000 below the national median.

Authors also point to the influence of hybrid and remote work opportunities, which are enabling more buyers to prioritize home affordability and quality of life, “driving interest in mid-sized Midwest and Northeast cities over traditional urban centers.”

Along with the lower cost of living and related housing affordability, the list references the Midwest’s climate resiliency, contrasting it with southern California’s wildfires as well as flooding in Texas and hurricanes in Florida and North Carolina.

“Though no one can perfectly predict future weather events and be perfectly prepared, climate data can be a useful tool to understand potential risk,” authors wrote, noting the Midwest and Northeast regions have lower climate risk than the South and West, “contributing their appeal and their ranking among the top markets.”

See the top 20 list and Realtor.com’s overview on the report.

— U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin is touting federal legislation that aims to protect workers from extreme heat amid “record-breaking heat waves” happening across the country.

Last year was the warmest on record for the United States, the Madison Dem noted in a release Friday, referencing figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. She pointed to a recent study from the nonprofit Climate Center showing “extreme” heat streaks have become more likely in Wisconsin in recent years.

Milwaukee has seen an increase of 3.4 degrees over the last half-century or so, the study shows. Other cities in the state including Wausau, Green Bay, Madison, La Crosse and Eau Claire have seen increases ranging from 1.6 degrees to 2.8 degrees over the same period.

“Far too many of our workers are being pushed to the brink in dangerous heat conditions — it’s wrong, and they deserve the dignity to be protected,” Baldwin said in a statement.

Under the bill, OSHA would be required to create an enforceable federal standard to protect workers in hot environments. The announcement references “commonsense measures” like providing paid breaks in cool spaces, access to water, limitations on the duration of heat exposure and emergency responses for workers with heat-related illness.

Plus, the legislation would direct employers to offer worker training on risk factors for heat illness and how to deal with symptoms.

The bill is called the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act, referencing the 2004 death of 53-year-old Valdivia, who died from heat stroke after working for 10 hours in 105-degree conditions.

That’s just one example, the release notes, as heat stress injuries have killed 815 American workers and seriously injured more than 70,000 between 1992 and 2017. Agriculture and construction are the industries with the highest rates of heat illness.

Baldwin’s office charges the “failure to implement simple heat safety measures” has cost U.S. employers about $100 billion per year in lost productivity.

National labor leaders are backing the legislation, with AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler urging OSHA to issue “a strong heat rule, not a weak one, to ensure workers have specific protections they need and to be able to raise unsafe working conditions without fear of retaliation.”

See the release and the bill text.

— Dem lawmakers recently circulated legislation that would require certain health insurance plans to cover maternity and newborn care as an essential health benefit.

Sens. Dora Drake of Milwaukee and Kelda Roys of Madison, as well as Rep. Robyn Vining of Wauwatosa, last week sent a cosponsorship memo to other lawmakers on LRB 2263, the Pregnancy Protection Act.

They wrote that every woman in Wisconsin “deserves access to high-quality and affordable” maternal health care.

“We know we have significant work to do to improve maternal healthcare in Wisconsin, especially considering the racial disparities experienced by Black women in Wisconsin, and this bill is one important step in that direction,” they wrote.

Under the bill, certain health insurance policies, referred to as disability insurance policies, as well as governmental self-insured health plans would be required to cover “the essential health benefit” of maternity and newborn care as specified by the state’s insurance commissioner.

The legislation lays out a list of requirements the commissioner would have to follow in establishing the benefit such as limits on cost sharing, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau.

If the maternity or newborn care benefit is also subject to another mandated coverage requirement, the bill would require the health insurance policy or self-insured health plan to provide coverage “under whichever requirement provides the insured or plan participant with more comprehensive coverage,” LRB wrote in an overview.

The lawmakers note maternity care coverage helps both women and their children, as related care can help address complications such as gestational diabetes, infections and more.

“Lack of healthcare coverage, or the potential of losing health coverage, could make this crucial healthcare inaccessible or unaffordable,” they wrote.

See the bill text.

— After Gov. Tony Evers announced he won’t seek reelection, the Wisconsin Hospital Association released a statement praising Evers as a “strong partner” to hospitals in the state.

WHA President and CEO Kyle O’Brien said the guv and his administration were “truly working night and day” during the COVID-19 pandemic to help hospitals get what they needed to deal with the crisis.

He also noted Evers signed multiple state budgets into law that resulted in higher Medicaid reimbursement for hospitals, more investment in the health care workforce and fewer barriers for health care in Wisconsin.

“The Wisconsin Hospital Association is grateful for the partnership we’ve had with Governor Evers and his team throughout his tenure,” O’Brien said. “We thank the governor for his service to Wisconsin and his strong support of our state’s hospitals and care providers.”

See the release and see more coverage on Evers deciding against seeking a third term.

For more of the most relevant health care news, reports on groundbreaking research in Wisconsin, links to top stories and more, sign up today for the free daily Health Care Report from WisPolitics and WisBusiness.com.

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— WARF is spotlighting a new optical sensor for monitoring laser-based manufacturing processes such as 3D printing, developed by engineering researchers at UW-Madison.

The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation included the technology in its latest roundup of “top licensing prospects” in engineering and computer sciences. The group’s overview notes the laser can be easily mounted to commercial 3D printers or laser welding machines to provide information on temperature, pressure, composition and other variables.

Along with machine learning-based information processing, the sensor can be used for quality control processes by manufacturers, which “reduces the need for destructive or expensive non-destructive testing” of the product, authors wrote.

The sensor was created by Profs. Scott Sanders and Lianyi Chen from the university’s Department of Mechanical Engineering.

See WARF’s overview and the patent application.

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