WED AM News: Dane County has first ‘meaningful’ housing increase since pandemic, report shows; Rural health care providers putting more focus on cybersecurity, survey finds

February 5, 2025

— The Dane County area’s housing market last year had its “first meaningful increase” in available homes since the pandemic, even as prices increased slightly more than expected.

That’s according to the latest report from Stark Company Realtors President and CEO David Stark covering regional market trends for the winter season and 2024 overall.

It shows that by year’s end, Dane County had 605 homes on the market — an increase of 30.7%, while nearby Sauk and Columbia counties collectively had 13.3% more homes on the market. Still, Stark notes most of the added inventory in Dane County was condos, which increased 106% over the year to 163, while single family homes rose 15% to 442.

As of early January, the latest period covered in Stark’s newsletter, 53% of single family homes and 40% of condos on the market were new construction. While he notes the “continued shortage of used inventory is striking,” seasonal trends are also playing a role.

“Many re-sellers take their homes off the market over the holidays and many more are waiting for spring to sell,” he wrote. “Builders, by contrast, are generally going to keep their inventory on the market until it sells.”

The report references predictions from the National Association of Realtors that sales would increase 10% to 15% in 2024, but sales in Dane County rose just over 7% for the year. For Columbia and Sauk counties, the increase was just under 3%.

And while prices were predicted to rise 6% in 2024, Dane County median prices increased 7.34%, “just slightly hotter than we expected.” By comparison, Sauk and Columbia prices increased by 8.66%.

Stark says single family homes made up most of that growth, with a 9.2% increase for the year, while condo prices in the area were 2.8% higher. Last year marked a four-year run where median prices have risen by nearly 40%, or 8.7% per year compounded, both in Dane and Columbia and Sauk counties.

Looking ahead, he says prices show no signs of falling in the near future, arguing there’s “simply too much demand in relation to the available supply” for that to occur.

“The pace of increase could decline, and we hope that it does,” he wrote. “We’ve already seen a slight decrease in the size of overbids, which is a positive sign. But that doesn’t mean prices are falling. Until we get a lot more inventory than we currently have, prices will continue to rise.”

See the full report.

— Rural health care providers are putting an increased focus on cybersecurity and emerging technologies such as AI, according to a recent survey from Milwaukee advisory firm Wipfli LLP.

The report spotlights the “growing prevalence of corporate cyberattacks” across all industries including health care, referencing a HIPAA Journal finding that large breaches of 500 or more patient records have doubled between 2017 and 2023.

In line with that trend, 36% of the 75 executive respondents to the group’s latest survey said they had at least one unauthorized access incident over the past year — nearly double the percentage of those reporting such an incident in 2024, which was 19%.

“The increase in attacks has hit home for a lot of people,” Wipfli Digital Strategist Nathan Sundheimer said in the report. “When you add in the fact that the cost of cyber insurance has skyrocketed, shoring up network security is a mandate.”

More providers in the survey are taking measures to prepare for cyber attacks and breaches, Wipfli found.

Eighty-one percent of respondents in the 2025 survey said they’ve increased cybersecurity investments, up from 70% in the 2024 survey. And the percentage of respondents that are developing or revising a cyber risk management policy rose from 52% to 70% over the year, while those improving systems to respond more quickly to a cyberattack rose from 60% to 68%.

But even as cybersecurity concerns have driven more rural health care organizations to take preventive measures, other technologies are giving them new, useful tools. More respondents are using digital applications for hospital price estimates, appointment reminders, scheduling and more, the survey found.

It also found 32% of respondents are currently using AI tools, while 37% aren’t and 31% are considering. Of those using them already, about half have been doing so for less than six months. The most common use case is for administrative tasks, while others such as patient scheduling, remote patient monitoring through wearable devices and imaging analysis ranked lower.

Sundheimer says “it makes sense” for rural care providers to begin with administrative uses of AI as they grapple with the constraints of a shrinking workforce.

“These additional use cases, while they are just beginning to emerge, suggest future avenues for AI integration into service delivery in rural healthcare,” he said.

See the report.

— GOP Sen. Eric Wimberger suggested a budget proposal announced by Gov. Tony Evers to combat PFAS contamination is a concession to Republican lawmakers, but said he still has concerns about language to protect innocent landowners.

Wimberger said Evers’ proposal is “an admission of what I’ve been saying for years: we can’t just write the DNR a check for $125 million to fight this problem.”

Meanwhile, Midwest Environmental Advocates said it’s open to a narrow exemption to protect farmers.

Evers yesterday announced a swath of measures to improve water quality in his Feb. 18 budget proposal, including more than $145 million to address PFAS contamination. That funding includes $125 million set aside in the 2023-25 state budget to fight PFAS.

Evers’ proposal also lists provisions aimed at helping those whose properties are contaminated through no fault of their own — a key sticking point in negotiations with the GOP-run Legislature over PFAS funding.

Wimberger, of Green Bay, co-authored SB 312 last session, which laid out how to spend the $125 million. Republicans have argued it includes important protections for innocent landowners, but Evers vetoed it last session over provisions limiting DNR’s authority to regulate PFAS. The Joint Finance Committee has rejected Evers’ calls to release the money directly to DNR.

Evers’ announcement says his clean water proposal will include measures to protect innocent landowners, such as farmers who unknowingly spread PFAS-containing biosolids on their land, along with $7 million to help innocent landowners and farmers clean up PFAS contamination.

See more at WisPolitics.

— The state Department of Safety and Professional Services is now offering a digital “wallet card” for those with occupational licenses in Wisconsin, enabling professionals to access them on their phones.

DSPS says it’s the first multi-occupation licensing agency in the country to offer a downloadable digital license like this. License holders can download it on a smartphone through the agency’s LicensE service and add it to their virtual wallet.

“It’s just as easy as downloading concert or plane tickets to your phone’s wallet, and as easy to access,” DSPS Secretary Dan Hereth said in the release. “We know professionals are performing more and more work on mobile devices and we wanted to provide a modern option that meets that demand.”

See the release.

— President Donald Trump announced he’s appointed UW-Madison Prof. Kim Ruhl to his Council of Economic Advisers.

Ruhl is the Curt and Sue Culver professor of economics at the Madison campus. The focus of his research includes international economics, according to his website.

Along with Ruhl, Trump appointed Pierre Yared, a professor and senior vice dean at Columbia Business School. Yared will serve as the council vice chair.

Trump’s federal aid freeze could hurt Head Start, health centers, more

Tony Evers launches effort to address PFAS in groundwater that serves a third of Wisconsinites

TOPICS

AGRIBUSINESS

– Wisconsin cattle inventory up 50k in 2025

CONSTRUCTION

– 125-unit apartment project planned at Mayfair Collection in Wauwatosa

ECONOMY

– Incoming downtown BID CEO Matt Dorner on downtown outlook, vacant storefronts

EDUCATION

– Wisconsin rural college program provides outreach amid ‘education desert’ phenomenon

– Citing poor test scores, MPS board says ‘no’ to charter that has operated since 2013