WED AM News: Report lays out idea for joint property assessment commission in Milwaukee County; GMAR report highlights large listings increase for March

April 15, 2026

— The Wisconsin Policy Forum is proposing a new joint commission to assess property in Milwaukee County, which could lead to more “timely, accurate and uniform” assessments and other benefits with a trade-off of higher costs.

That’s according to the group’s latest report on this topic, which notes Wisconsin is the only state among its immediate Midwest neighbors to have all property assessed at the municipal level, aside from manufacturing parcels.

Milwaukee County’s 19 different cities and villages each separately conduct property assessments, and only the cities of Milwaukee, Wauwatosa and West Allis have in-house assessor’s offices. Other municipalities in the county contract with private firms for this work.

“This approach means that most Wisconsin municipalities bring relatively small economies of scale to the process of determining property values,” authors wrote.

They noted various challenges with this system, from a confusing patchwork of assessment practices to the limited number of contract assessors working in the area, as well as staffing issues for assessors and accuracy of individual property-level data.

WPF questions whether assessments in the county “are updated frequently enough to capture important changes in the market for different classes of property and neighborhoods.”

As one potential alternative, the report lays out a framework for pooling resources among some of the county’s municipalities and forming a consortium tasked with assessing properties for participating communities. Its governance model is patterned on a local animal control services commission, which has operated for more than 25 years.

Authors say forming such a commission would likely result in “more timely, accurate and uniform” assessments, more data on commercial properties, greater expertise and specialization among staff, better responsiveness to property owner concerns and more planning resources.

“For example, this approach would likely support a process to bring property values in each member community up to market prices every other year,” they wrote. “The main drawback of the commission under this model would be the cost.”

WPF warns this approach could lead to a “substantial increase” in costs for nearly all of the 16 municipalities that currently use a contract assessor.

The report includes modeling for various approaches, including several for providing in-house assessment by the commssion. For in-house options, authors expect such a commission would serve municipalities that have prioritized greater accuracy and more frequent revaluations, and have been willing to bear a higher cost burden for these improvements.

Ultimately, despite the higher costs, WPF argues “there appear to be potential gains from working with neighboring communities” either through the in-house approach or contracted assessment.

See the release and report.

— The greater Milwaukee area is seeing large increases in home listings early this year, potentially signaling that “sellers have taken their foot off the brake.”

That’s according to the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors, which recently issued a report covering first-quarter home sales and listing data, as well as figures for all of the first quarter.

Across the four-county metro area — including Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties — listings jumped 14.9% over the year reaching 1,986 in March. That was driven in part by a 29.9% “surge” of listings in Waukesha County alone.

For the first quarter, the pattern was similar with a 11.8% increase over the year for the four-county region and a 22.1% increase in Waukesha County.

Authors note there were 5,167 new listings in the metro area in the first quarter of 2022, before interest rates doubled midway through the year. By comparison, the first quarter of this year saw 5,050 listings, the report shows.

Still, while GMAR calls the increase “welcome news,” the new listings were quickly absorbed into the market without impacting prices, which continue to rise. Across the four-county area, prices rose about 5% in the first quarter, reaching $457,448 on average.

Meanwhile, home sales in the area rose 11.2% in March and 2.1% in the first quarter. Authors wrote that may seem significant, but the increase is happening within a depressed sales environment that’s persisted since the interest rate spike in mid-2022. When that occurred, sales dropped 18.6% by 2023, the report shows.

“Put another way, sales went from 20,368 in 2022 to 16,586 in 2023; and they have not bounced back to 2022’s level since,” authors wrote.

See more in the report.

— Dr. Shekar Kurpad has been tapped to lead the Medical College of Wisconsin as its next president and CEO, succeeding Dr. John Raymond.

MCW yesterday announced the leadership selection for Kurpad, who is currently a professor of neurosurgery and senior associate dean of neuroscience in the MCW School of Medicine. He’s also the founding director of the Wisconsin Institute of NeuroScience, a joint effort of MCW, Froedtert ThedaCare, Children’s Wisconsin and the Zablocki VA Medical Center.

Kurpad’s appointment is effective at the start of July, when Raymond will step down and serve as a faculty member in the medical school while helping with the leadership transition.

He was chosen unanimously after a national search, according to MCW Board of Trustees Chair John Donofrio, who points to Kurpad’s background in leadership and innovation.

“He is uniquely positioned to guide MCW forward, building on our strong foundation, while advancing academic medicine through our patient care, research, education and community engagement missions,” he said in a statement.

The announcement touts Kurpad’s contribution to the medical field, including nearly 15,000 surgical procedures and at least 150 original research manuscripts. He’s recognized for his work in spinal cord injury in particular, having developed imaging biomarkers and leading major clinical trials in this area.

See the release.

— Former Gov. Tommy Thompson has joined the board of advisors for GenoPalate, a Milwaukee company that uses genetic insights and other factors to guide nutrition choices.

Thompson, who also served as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President George W. Bush, says personalized nutrition is becoming “an increasingly important part” of the future of health care.

“There is tremendous opportunity at the intersection of food as medicine, prevention, and technological innovation, and it is especially exciting to see a company right here in Wisconsin helping lead that movement,” he said in a statement.

The company says it’s in the midst of “evolving beyond genetics,” expanding its personalized nutrition platform to incorporate other health factors including blood biomarkers, food habits and more.

See the release.

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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