A 36-lot west-side subdivision moves through Rhinelander review
Tony Pharo called housing the region’s leading economic constraint as the plan commission considered new residential land.
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Northwoods housing notes
Useful reporting for a region that needs more homes.
Plainspoken analysis of Oneida County housing, Wisconsin programs, financing, construction and the decisions that determine what gets built.
What Oneida County should do next
The case has been made. The useful work now is specific: identify buildable sites, target real monthly payments and complete an early project others can follow.
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Rhinelander approves the Boyce Drive housing agreement
The agreement moved another housing project from broad support toward defined responsibilities and execution.
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The infrastructure math that can stop housing before it starts
Tony Pharo explained why even low-interest infrastructure debt can add an unaffordable amount to every home.
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Rhinelander approves West Wind Drive rezoning
The council decision sent a signal about whether new housing proposals can move through the local process.
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What makes homeownership easier in practice
Not a slogan. A complete budget, early site work, sensible financing and fewer surprises between choosing a plan and getting the keys.
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The zoning rules quietly making housing more expensive
A town can say it wants attainable homes while minimum sizes, wide lots and cosmetic requirements make those homes impossible to build.
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Washington is finally paying attention to manufactured housing
Federal programs increasingly recognize factory-built homes as part of the supply answer, although the fine print still determines whether a buyer can use them.
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The overlooked housing opportunity: helping people stay
Many older residents are not trying to leave the Northwoods. They are trying to find a manageable home that lets them remain here.
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The monthly cost matters more than the sticker
A lower purchase price is not much help if a Northern Wisconsin winter turns the heating bill into a second mortgage payment.
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Why a smaller house can be a better house
Cutting wasted hallways is not the same as cutting daily comfort. A thoughtful plan protects the rooms and storage people actually use.
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Eagle River’s Riverside debate shows the difficulty of creating new homesites
A proposal involving roughly five acres reached residential zoning but stopped at the county sale—a useful case study in land, public trust and housing approvals.
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The Wisconsin housing program developers should understand
WHEDA’s infrastructure financing goes after the unglamorous costs that can decide whether a workforce-housing project gets built at all.
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The advertised home price is not the project price
The number that matters includes the foundation, the driveway, the utilities and the ground underneath it—not just the house leaving the factory.
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CrossMod homes, without the marketing language
The useful idea is simple: combine factory efficiency with the design, installation and financing expectations of conventional homeownership.
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What “HUD-code” actually means
It is a construction standard, not a description of a neighborhood or a prediction about what a home will look like.
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Factory-built housing isn’t temporary housing
The home is built indoors. The neighborhood, foundation and responsibilities are every bit as permanent as any other house.
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You can’t recruit people who have nowhere to live
Around here, a job offer can fall apart over a forty-mile commute. That makes housing every bit as important as roads, broadband and industrial space.
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What Oneida County’s housing study is really telling us
The report puts data behind something people here already feel: the available homes do not match the people who live and work in the Northwoods.
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Vilas County’s permit decline shows how quickly new-home supply can stall
A sharp drop in single-family permits is a warning sign for a county already balancing permanent residents, seasonal demand and high land costs.
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A regional study points Lincoln County toward smaller-lot homeownership
The Centergy housing study connects attainable single-family construction with compact sites near jobs, utilities and existing community services.
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The study’s headline number: more than 1,000 owner-occupied homes
Oneida County’s completed study quantified a shortage large enough to affect nearly every employer and community.
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Lincoln County’s housing study identifies a need for more than 1,300 homes
The county’s 2030 forecast shows that owner housing remains central to the workforce equation, even in a market where single-family homes already dominate the inventory.
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Oneida County formally launches its housing study
The study set out to replace assumptions with market data developers could use.
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Why Oneida County needed a housing study before it could build
Employers were describing the same problem everywhere Tony Pharo went: jobs were available, but homes were not.
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Tower Road Acres opens a new path for homebuilding in Forest County
A 240-acre Crandon-area development began releasing wooded homesites in a county where new residential supply has been difficult to create.
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The Grow North study showed a regional shortage of attainable homes
Across Vilas, Forest, Lincoln and neighboring counties, the housing problem was already visible: older inventory, high site costs and too few practical ownership choices.
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