Housing Costs Are Forcing Some Wisconsinites to Delay Medical Care

Thursday, June 5th, 2025 -- 8:00 AM

(Joe Schulz, Wisconsin Public Radio) Rising housing costs have been forcing some Wisconsinites to delay medical care, which can lead to negative health outcomes for residents and communities, according to Joe Schulz with the Wisconsin Public Radio.

That’s according to a new report from the University of Wisconsin-Extension as part of a project examining livability in rural communities led by Tessa Conroy, associate professor of agricultural and applied economics at UW-Madison.

The report examined how rising housing costs intersect with health care. It found older homeowners were more likely than renters to prioritize paying housing expenses over medical care. That’s despite renters making up the largest share of households dealing with housing financial stress.

“Housing financial stress is not an individual issue, it does impact the broader community’s health outcomes,” said Erin Gaede, a Ph.D. student in the sociology department at UW-Madison who conducted interviews for the study.

“At a time when so many communities are actively discussing housing affordability and overburdened health systems, it’s so important to understand how housing financial stress and health are connected.”

Compared to the average across Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio, “Wisconsin has consistently faster growth rates in housing price since the start of 2021,” the report stated.

The report identified those facing housing financial stress as households spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing expenses. It used data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

In Wisconsin, 18.6 percent of owner-occupied households pay 30 percent or more of their income on housing, while 35 percent of renting households pay 30 percent or more of their income on housing, the report said.

More than 330,000 renting households experienced housing financial stress in Wisconsin, while more than 230,000 owner-occupied households with mortgages experienced financial stress from housing, according to the report.

Another more than 90,000 owner-occupied homes without mortgages experienced financial stress, the report said. Those homeowners are typically retired and on a limited income who face non-mortgage costs like insurance, utilities and property taxes, the report says.

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