Wisconsin is a place where the cheese is squeaky and the affordability is reasonably manageable. While many other states are charging $14 for avocado toast and $900k for a broom closet with “natural lighting,” Wisconsin is still trying to keep life reasonably priced. Sure, you might have to survive a winter that feels like living inside a giant ice cube, but at least you will have enough money left over to buy a really nice freezer.
Here are Five Fast Facts about Wisconsin's affordability:
- 👀 Signs Of Life - The housing market is waking up! For example, home sales in the Appleton area rose 4% while median prices dipped 6.2% in March. In today’s housing market, that’s the real estate version of spotting a unicorn riding a snowmobile.
- 📈 Inflation vs Taxation - One thing that's NOT helping is that a lot of places are raising property taxes faster than inflation…and for nothing extra in return! It's not because real economics are pushing taxes up...it's because local governments just want more of your hard earned paychecks. PARTY FOUL!!!
- ⛽ Gas And Bloating - With the Iran mess, gas prices are up above $4, which is painful because Wisconsinites drive everywhere. Seriously, if the destination is more than six feet away, someone’s starting the truck. Good thing the US is an oil juggernaut now, or it would be a whole lot worse!
- 🥩 Ya Gotta Eat - Groceries are high on everyone's budget, right? A recent proposed law would have created state-owned grocery stores (like New York City's proposal), but it failed to pass. That's just as well, since NYC's first store looks to be an overpriced mess even before it gets built. What are they thinking??
- 🤦 Don't Be Dumb - Seriously, government-owned grocery stores (either city or state) are a bad idea. They fail everywhere, every time, for many reasons. We're all about giving people a helping hand, but let's make sure we're not wasting taxpayer money on things we know won't work!
🔥Bottom line: Prices on various things may jump around a bit, but Wisconsin is still in the top half of states in terms of cost of living right now. It's not perfect, and there’s definitely more work to be done, but it ain’t half bad! Let's just keep our eyes on Madison to make sure they move things in the right direction. Because wouldn't it be great if our biggest worries were how much cheese is too much cheese? (Spoiler alert: there is no such thing).
How affordable does it feel to you right now?
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