La Crosse Housing Market
Shortage of Housing In La Crosse WI
It has been remarkably interesting the last few years because of a housing shortage in the LaCrosse market. This has created a substantial spike in value for the La Crosse County market, unseen in recent years.
When I started in real estate in 2008, (which was at the beginning or just before the crash hit locally) there were on average about 700–800 single family homes on the market in La Crosse County. And those numbers rose as high as a thousand or maybe even 1,100.
Right now, there is an average of about 210 houses on the market on a given week or month. Actually 70–80 of those homes are under contract even though they’re showing up in the single family home market. In the pending section, there’s usually 140–160 houses ready to close.
There’s Only About 110 To 120 Homes Available
So, if you count everything that has a sign in the yard, you’re at about 300, but of those homes, there’s really only about 110– 120 that do not have a contract on them. This is substantial and it’s driving up the demand and raising the value of all new builds currently underway. Because of this shortage, there is going to be high demand for quite some time.
Holmen is one of the fastest growing areas per capita of any area in Wisconsin right now and that is due to it’s close proximity to La Crosse. Another reason for the huge uptick in demand is because of all the riots and COVID-related experiences. Consequently there’s a lot of people that want to move out of the big cities like Chicago, Minneapolis, New York and San Francisco and move to more rural areas
La Crosse Is Considered A Small Town
La Crosse County is considered a small town in comparison to these major cities. Just to note, one of the stats that came out just seven days after the first riots happened in Minneapolis, real estate inventory in the Minneapolis area increased by 20%. So, there is going to be an exodus out of these bigger cities and Holmen in La Crosse County, is where all the new building is going to be happening.
Holmen is positioned for growth and expected to triple by 2035, but with the current trend, I think it will triple much faster. It went from about 6,000 to 12,000 over the last eight to ten years. It could increase from 12,000 to about 36,000 over the next 10 to 15 years.