MILWAUKEE — The amount of homeowners in the Milwaukee metro area who spend more than 30% of their household income on housing and utilities has grown at more than twice the national rate, according to new data from the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies.
At least 22.2% of homeowners in the Milwaukee-Waukesha metropolitan area are facing this challenge; 9.2% of these people are “severely burdened.”
But it’s not just the mortgage payment — estimated to cost an average of $2,448 per month — causing this pinch.
Homeowner’s insurance premiums in Milwaukee have gone up 20% from 2021 to 2024, an increase of $296 per year, a Consumer Federation of America report shows.
Doug Heller, director of insurance for Consumer Federation of America, said these increases are “unprecedented.”
“We’ve really never seen anything like this over the years in terms of spiking rates this fast, where we’re paying more than we ever have for homeowner’s insurance,” he said.
Increases like that are making it harder for first-time homeowners to realize their dream.
Milwaukee resident Lisa Brooks understands that better than anyone. She spent 15 years waiting for her chance to jump into the housing market, mostly, she said, out of fear she wouldn’t be able to afford it.
A year ago, after her new out-of-state landlord upped her rent by $300, she decided to finally take a leap.
“They say when you first walk into the place when you are looking for a home, you know when it is yours. It was that for me,” Brooks said.
Working with Milwaukee-based Acts Housing — which provides home buying and financial counseling — Brooks was able to purchase her bungalow “sanctuary.”
Though she was relieved to find a house she could afford, it came with some growing pains. She said she never anticipated how much it would cost to insure it.
“In the loan, at Acts Housing, we had built in a good $1,400 or $1,600 per year for the insurance,” Brooks said. “When I started getting quotes for the insurance, I was hearing three, almost four times that, $4,400 to $5,000 a year, and it was like wait a minute — that was not in the budget.”
Lora Reinholz, a certified financial planner and professor at Marquette University’s College of Business, said this isn’t uncommon.
“I’m not surprised, unfortunately, because we’ve seen costs going up. We have seen more and more challenges because of climate change, hurricanes, a lot of storms… tornadoes, wildfires and that’s going to be impacting any kind of rebuilding,” she said.
Heller said when it comes to these disasters, people tend to focus on states like California and Florida, but that increases can be just as severe in the middle of the country, such as in Wisconsin.
“Not in places that touch the coastline, not in places that are subject to real wildfire, but the places that have severe thunderstorms and hailstorms,” he said.
“Ten times the amount of losses are associated with hail and thunderstorms than are associated with hurricanes or with wildfires.”
Add in inflation and that only further affects the cost.
“Rates have gone up for mortgages and costs in general have gone up a little bit more,” said Reinholz. “So, we kind of forget that inflation, even at 2 or 3%, is going to be increasing prices over the long term.”
Brooks was able to talk with her lender, who helped her get a lower insurance rate.
But she still questions why her quoted rates were so high.
Though she acknowledged her credit score may have played a role, she also suspects the area she’s living — in the 53206 zip code — was another factor. The area is notoriously known for a high crime rate, but Brooks said as someone who lives there, it doesn’t make sense.
“We’re being charged as if we have mansions over here and that’s not the case,” she said.
Brooks said she has a friend who built a house of comparable size to her over in the 53209 zip code by Good Hope Road; however, she’s paying less than $1,000 a year in insurance.
“And here I am paying twice that and I want to know why,” she said. “So hopefully the insurance industry can do a better job because it feels like redlining, even though they don’t say it’s no more redlining.”
Despite all of this, Brooks was still able to proceed with buying the house.
Some homeowners that are able to buy a home outright are now taking a riskier route — going without insurance.
A record 7% in the U.S. are choosing to not purchase home insurance, the Consumer Federation of America report shows.
“We’re seeing more and more people go uninsured and that’s terribly dangerous because our homes are our most important and most valuable asset and if you don’t have the coverage for it and something does happen, then people are at a total loss,” Heller said.
For those in the buying process or those who own a home and are seeing rates go up, Reinholz said reaching out for help can go a long way.
“Talk to somebody about your insurance,” she said. “You can go to your computer, work with a robot, work with AI to identify what you need, but sometimes it is good to have that face-to-face interaction because your broker will be able to work with you to identify, know who you are, find out what is important to you so you can get the correct amount of coverage.”
Heller put some responsibility back on regulators, saying that as insurance gets more complicated, with separate policies for things like floods, it’s time for change.
“I think it’s time for regulators, the insurance commissioner of Wisconsin, and lawmakers to get serious about reforming the marketplace because right now, the insurance companies are in charge of this product that we basically have to buy,” he said. “If it’s making a choice about whether or not you’re going to upgrade to a new TV, you can choose not to do that, but you can’t choose not to renew your homeowner’s insurance policy.”
Despite the challenges that persist, Brooks said it was worth it to accomplish her dream — becoming a homeowner.
“Every day I pull up from work, I look at [my home] and go, ‘This is mine,’” she said.
“This is my version of the American dream.”
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Lora Reinholz's first name. This error has been corrected. (July 7, 2025)