MON AM News: Dane County housing market seeing rising sales, slow inventory growth; Federal judge says CFTC won’t suffer ‘irreparable harm’ by state gaming laws

August 3, 2026

— While home inventory levels in Dane County remain limited, “the picture is looking brighter” for the local housing market as sales are on the rise.

That’s according to the latest market analysis from Madison-based Stark Company Realtors CEO David Stark, who says both buyers and sellers are now “coming to accept the reality” that home mortgage rates will be in the 6% range for the foreseeable future.

That’s the largest driving factor for more homes being sold in the county, Stark wrote, noting it had 8.4% more residential closings in the second quarter compared to the same period of last year. On a year-to-date basis, the increase is 6.5%.

“June was a particularly active month, with Dane County closings up 19% from June of last year,” he wrote. “What’s nice about this is that it’s happening without any assistance from mortgage rates.”

Stark says the “healthy” acceptance of the new mortgage rate status quo was expected. And while the market hasn’t returned to the pre-pandemic state, he argues “it’s moving in the right direction” as it rebalances to meet the current environment.

“It will take time, but we have no doubt that we’ll get there,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, the county’s inventory levels have been seeing slow improvement year over year.

The low point came in 2023 when Dane County had just 511 available homes at the start of the third quarter. At the same point this year, that has more than doubled to 1,027, according to the report. But that remains below 2019 when the total was 1,242.

Growth in this measure has been slow this year, with total residential inventories rising just 6% over the year at the start of the first quarter, while single-family options had fallen 3.6% over the same period.

More recently, Stark notes the pace of new listings has accelerated with an increase of 7.9% over the year in July. But this growth is playing out amid “extremely low” inventories by historical standards, he wrote. As a result, most listed homes are selling, and many of these are going quickly.

The trend of rising sales helps explain why inventory growth has been slow in the county.

“Both buying and selling activity have improved this year, and as buyers come to the market in greater numbers, inventory is struggling to accumulate, even with more new listings,” Stark wrote. “New listings are simply selling too quickly for inventory to accumulate.”

See the full report.

— A federal judge in Wisconsin sided with the state and denied a request by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission for a preliminary injunction to block the state from enforcing its gaming laws against prediction market operators.

U.S. District Judge William Griesbach wrote in the ruling Wednesday that the state’s gambling laws were not preempted by federal regulators. He also rejected motions from Kalshi and Crypto.com to intervene in the case as plaintiffs, and said the agency did not prove it would suffer “irreparable harm” if the preliminary injunction was not granted.

“Wisconsin’s gambling statutes do not conflict with federal commodities regulations and are not preempted by them,” Griesbach wrote.

Griesbach also found that the CFTC did not prove how it was likely to win on the harm claim, which is central to granting a preliminary injunction.

“This argument suggests that the regulated entities’ attempt to comply with Wisconsin law would put them at risk of violating federal law, which, as previously discussed, is not the case,” Griesbach wrote.

He wrote that prediction market companies, rather than the CFTC, “would be the proper plaintiffs to challenge the State’s enforcement of its statutes and to allege irreparable harm from the risk of enforcement. The CFTC has not demonstrated that it will suffer irreparable harm if the State is not preliminarily enjoined from enforcing its gambling statutes.”

The question of whether being regulated by the CFTC gives prediction markets preemption over state gambling laws is at the heart of active litigation across the country. The companies say as federally regulated entities, they do not have to answer to state gaming regulators and do not need to apply for gaming licenses or be subjected to the same taxes that sportsbooks operators are. The states disagree.

The CFTC has sued nine states on the basis that state regulators are infringing on the agency’s “exclusive jurisdiction” over the industry by trying to impose their existing regulations. The judge also wrote in his ruling that “the plain language” of the state’s gaming laws “seems to cover sports-related event contracts registered with the CFTC.”

The judge wrote in the ruling that for the CFTC to successfully argue that federal law preempts Wisconsin’s gambling statutes on sports-related event contracts, “it must point to a clear congressional statement.” The ruling details why the judge does not see that as the case.

Griesbach wrote that under the CFTC definition of “swaps,” “it is difficult to imagine any agreement, contract, or transaction that this definition would not cover” and quoted from the judgment in the case filed by Michigan’s attorney general against Kalshi. Last month the judge granted Michigan a temporary restraining order against Kalshi, which is currently barred from operating in the state.

“Even if event contracts do fall under the [Commodity Exchange Act]’s definition of ‘swaps,’ the CFTC is unlikely to prevail on its argument that the CEA preempts state law,” Griesbach wrote.

The judge also denied a request from the American Gaming Association to intervene as a defendant in opposition to the CFTC.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice sued Kalshi, Robinhood, Coinbase, Polymarket and Crypto.com in Dane County Circuit Court in April. The CFTC sued the state a week later in response in the U.S. Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin.

Online sports betting is not legal statewide in Wisconsin, and the legal age for sports betting is 21. Gov. Tony Evers in April signed legislation to allow online sports betting in the state, though the state needs to negotiate agreements with tribal groups first. The guv reportedly met with tribal leaders in June to begin that process.

Separately, the Ho-Chunk Nation, a federally recognized tribe that operates casinos in Wisconsin, sued Kalshi and Robinhood in August 2025 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin seeking declaratory and injunctive relief and money damages.

The tribe is arguing that the prediction markets are operating in violation of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 by engaging in illegal gambling on tribal lands and disguising sports betting as events contracts, and that Kalshi and Robinhood working together are in violation of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act of 1970.

The Wisconsin Elections Commission issued a statement last month warning citizens that voting in any election in which they have “made or become interested, directly or indirectly, in any bet or wager depending upon the result of the election” is a Class I felony.

— The Medical College of Wisconsin is set to lead a multi-center clinic trial in rehabilitation for veterans and first responders suffering from traumatic brain injuries.

The Avalon Action Alliance awarded a $7.5 million clinical trial agreement to MCW to conduct the Veteran’s Interdisciplinary Care for TBI and co-Occuring Disorders Rehabilitation Trial over the course of the next four years.

The study will evaluate the effectiveness of a three-week outpatient rehabilitation program, specifically for veterans and first responders.

Mitchell McCrea, interim executive director of Wisconsin Institute of Neuroscience and vice chair of research in the department of neurosurgery at MCW, will be the principal investigator.

“The VICTORY-RCT study employs the highest level of scientific rigor to evaluate a rehabilitation model that has the potential to meaningfully improve quality of life for individuals coping with the persistent effects of traumatic brain injury,” said McCrea in a news release.

The study will take place at other participating sites including: the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; University of Florida Health Jacksonville; University of Colorado Anschutz’s Marcus Institute for Brain Health; and Jefferson Health – MossRehab Institute for Brain Health in Pennsylvania.

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