(The Center Square) – There is more good news for people looking to buy a house in Wisconsin’s latest home sales report.
The Wisconsin Realtors Association recently released its report on June home sales that showed a huge jump in sales.
“Existing home sales increased 8.1% over June 2024 – the first year-over- year increase in June sales in four years,” the report states.
The Realtors say more than 7,100 homes were sold in June of this year. June of 2024 saw just over 6,600.
Realtors Board Chair Chris DeVincentis said June is usually a busy month, but June of 2025 was particularly busy.
“June is usually our most active month for closings, with just over 11.5% of the state’s annual sales typically taking place during that month,” DeVincentis said. “So, it was good to finally see an upturn in June’s performance compared to the previous June.”
But it’s not just the jump in sales that is grabbing attention.
The Realtors report also shows a nearly 5% jump in available homes compared to last year, and a less than 5% jump in home prices.
“This is the fourth straight month where median price appreciation has been moderate, with prices going up less than 5% annually in three of those four months. In contrast, the annual appreciation of median prices has exceeded 5% every month since June 2020 when we were in the depths of the pandemic,” Realtors president and CEO Toim Larson said. “We hope this moderation in prices is a trend rather than an aberration.”
The median price for a home in Wisconsin last month hit $434,000. That’s up from $325,000 last June, and $330,000 last month.
But those are median, statewide prices. Local prices continue to vary from a median price of $265,000 in central Wisconsin to $399,900 in the Madison/Dane County area.
Madison/Dane County and the Milwaukee area continue to see most of Wisconsin’s home sales. The June report shows just less than 55% of homes sold last month were in the two areas.
The other numbers from the report are positive, even if they are not overwhelming.
The Realtors say mortgage interest rates dropped from 6.92% last June to 6.82% last month. At the same time there was a 0.1% increase in year-to- date home sales compared to last year, and a two day increase in time on the market from June of 2024 to June 2025.

(The Center Square) – A technology policy group that describes itself as left-center will be in Madison on Tuesday urging Gov. Tony Evers to sign a portable benefits bill for gig workers that recently passed the Legislature.
Chamber of Progress is expected be at the Wisconsin Capitol on Tuesday along with at least 30 app-based workers and bill sponsors Rep. Sylvia Ortiz-Velez, D–Milwaukee, and Sen. Julian Bradley, R–New Berlin.
“Gig workers are pretty clear that they want to preserve their independence but also get benefits that travel with them from job to job,” Chamber of Progress Director of Civic Innovation Policy Ruth Whittaker said in a statement. “The legislature listened to gig workers today. Let’s hope the governor listens, too.”
Another group of drivers from Uber and Lyft protested the bill soon after it passed along with the Wisconsin AFL-CIO, saying they were concerned the bill would strip app-based transportation and delivery drivers of employee status and reclassify drivers as independent contractors.
The bill would then allow gig workers to create portable benefits options such as health care and retirement accounts.
Sen. Melissa Ratcliff, D-Cottage Grove, called the bill a covert way to deny employment protections for these drivers during floor discussion before the bill passed.
Drivers who make $750 in a calendar year are eligible for a portable benefits account, with the company being obligated to pay 4% of the driver’s earnings in the previous quarter, minus tips, if a company contributes to the account.
Gig worker bills across the country are growing with Chamber of Progress pointing to ballot initiatives in California and efforts in Washington and Minnesota along with legal settlements in New York and Massachusetts on the topic.
Maryland and Pennsylvania have launched portable benefits pilot programs for gig workers.

(The Center Square) – Leaders in Wisconsin public broadcasting said they are expecting to lose $6 million every year after Congress passed $1.1 billion in federal funding cuts to public broadcasting.
The cuts, first reported by WMTV-15 News, will directly affect the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS Wisconsin and Wisconsin Public Radio.
PBS Wisconsin and WPR receive 10.4% of their revenue from federal funding.
However, a broadcasting official said the rippling consequences of the cuts may run deeper than just the $6 million loss.
“This rescission will have a significant effect on public media in Wisconsin and across the system, but we do not yet know the scope and specifics of those effects until we learn more about how the funding cuts will be implemented and what the impact will be on the larger public media system,” Marta Bechtol, executive director of Educational Communications Board, said in a statement to The Center Square.
Bechtol said because CPB provides centralized services to the public media system such as educational research, content development and other contracted services, the cuts could force other Wisconsin stations to absorb the costs, driving up additional financial consequences.
While the funding cuts won’t be immediate, Bechtol said several changes are already being planned for next year, such as the cancellation of new shows at PBS kids and the ending of four programs on WPR due to budget challenges.
“We know that this rescission will reshape public media in our state,” Bechtol said. “But, our mission to provide essential public media service and statewide emergency alerts to Wisconsin will not waver.”
Some conservatives in the state, however, have pushed back on public broadcasting leaders’ views.
“These funds should have been cut years ago,” Mike Nichols, president of the Badger Institute, told The Center Square. “Government subsidies turn journalists – usually leftist ones – into lackeys for politicians, undermine the true value of the so-called Fourth Estate, and create unfair, subsidized competition for privately funded media.
“At any rate, if you can’t find out about a tornado or how to grow flowers somewhere other than public media, you don’t own a cell phone or a computer,” Nichols concluded.
The $1.1 billion cuts to public broadcasting were signed into law by President Donald Trump Thursday.

(The Center Square) – A new poll found majority support for several recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions, with most issues receiving bipartisan support and some having partisan divides.
However, approval of the court as a whole is at 49% when not considering specific rulings, according to a new Marquette University Law School poll that surveyed 1,005 adults nationwide between July 7-16, 2025, with a margin of error of +/-3.4 percentage points.
In a similar May MLS poll, the court’s approval was at 53% with disapproval at 47%.
“The decline in approval in July is driven by shifts among Democrats, whose approval fell from 31% in May to 18% in July,” the poll found. “Approval among Republicans and Independents increased only slightly.”
Although support among Democrats declined, the poll found the court’s 78% approval among Republicans in the May survey increased to 81% approval in July, while the 43% Independent approval in May increased to 45% in July.
Across seven cases, however, 75% of respondents favored a majority of the rulings, while 25% opposed a majority of the results. Most respondents disagreed with at least some rulings.
The court’s decision upholding a Texas law to require proof of age before accessing sexually oriented websites received widely bipartisan approval at 75%, with 84% of Republicans, 70% of independents and 68% of Democrats approving.
A ruling requiring due process for people subject to deportation received 53% of Republicans approval while 75% of Independents and 92% of Democratic respondents favored it.
The court upholding a Tennessee ban on gender-transition treatment for minors got 90% Republican and 72% Independent approval, but only 52% of Democrats backing the ruling.
The court’s decision allowing parents to opt children out of some school lessons received 91% of Republicans’ and 66% of Independents’ approval, but 52% Democratic disapproval.
Also, 77% of Republicans supported a ruling forcing the sale of TikTok, while 53% of Independents and 53% of Democrats opposed it.
The court’s ruling in favor of religious tax exemption for Catholic charities received 70% Republican approval, 60% Independent approval and 53% Democratic disapproval.
Finally, a ruling limiting district court use of nationwide injunctions was favored by 78% of Republicans and 63% of Independents, but rejected by 68% of Democrats.
The poll also surveyed opinions on a July 2024 decision granting presidents immunity from criminal prosecution for official presidential acts, finding that 83% of Democrats and 58% of Independents disapprove of the ruling, while 61% of Republicans agree with it.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin Democrat Gov. Tony Evers will not be running for re-election in 2026.
That leaves Whitefish Bay Resident Bill Berrien and Washington County Executive Josh Schoemann, both Republicans, as the two candidates who have announced they are running for the seat.
Schoemann led U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany, WI-7th Congressional, in a straw poll at the Republican Party of Wisconsin convention in May. Tiffany has not announced if he is running in the race.
“So, would I win if I ran a sixth time?” Evers said in his announcement. “Of course, no question about that. But whether I would in or not has never been part of my calculus about running again.”
It is not clear yet who will run on the Democratic side of the race but Democratic Governors Association Chair Laura Kelly said that it believes the next governor will also be a Democrat.
“No matter who emerges from the Republican primary, one thing is certain: they will be too extreme for Wisconsin, in stark contrast with the strong, results-focused leadership in the governor’s office that Wisconsinites have enjoyed over the last six years,” Kelly said. “The DGA looks forward to protecting Governor Evers’ historic legacy and keeping this office in Democratic hands.”
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told WISN that he would consider a run if Evers announced he would not run.
Berrien, meanwhile, said he believes Evers didn’t run because the state is ready for a change.
“Tony Evers is too scared to run on the Madison Democrats’ record of failure,” Berrien said in a statement. “I’m going to spend the next 15 months making sure whoever the Madison liberals pick from their bench of radical career politicians learns the same lesson.”

(The Center Square) – The Green Bay Packers made $83.7 million last year, a profit increase of $23.6 million that that team attributed to hosting a ninth regular season game.
The team saw $64.9 million in increased revenue but also spent $41.3 million more, expenses that included both travel for games and a joint practice in Denver along with depreciation of Lambeau Field and team facilities being factored in.
The Packers are unique in that they are a publicly owned, non-profit corporation that releases financial information publicly each year.
The Packers also have paid for stadium upgrades primarily through private funds instead of asking for public funding. The team had a 0.5% stadium tax that ran from 2000 through 2015. The team doesn’t pay property tax on the public-owned stadium but does make annual rent payments. The Packers and city of Green Bay remain in negotiations on a $1 million annual payment along with a 2.75% annual escalator on a lease extension.
The Packers saw a $34.6 million increase in local revenue last year while national revenue payments from the NFL related to television and streaming rose $30.3 million with a total $432.6 million payment from the league.
The NFL recently hosted the 2025 NFL Draft in Green Bay outside of Lambeau Field with Experience Greater Green Bay and the Packers claiming the event created an economic impact of $73 million in Brown County and nearly $105 million statewide.
But a recent academic paper showed the benefit for draft host cities is far less than what host cities have claimed and Las Vegas actually saw 20,000 less hotel rooms rented during the event.

(The Center Square) – President Donald Trump’s AI action plan is getting support at the Wisconsin Capitol from State Rep. Nate Gustafson, R-Fox Crossing, who said it will open new opportunities for Wisconsin’s burgeoning data center industry.
“This plan cuts red tape, boosts real investment, and puts power back in the hands of states, workers, and the private sector, not federal bureaucrats,” Gustafson said.
Trump’s AI Action Plan promises to “create streamlined permitting for semiconductor manufacturing facilities, and energy infrastructure while guaranteeing security,” according to the White House.
Gustafson said that means not just investments in new data centers, but investments in rural broadband across Wisconsin.
Gustafson is also excited about tax credits and incentives for “investments in apprenticeships, tech colleges, and STEM programs.”
“This plan is about more freedom, more innovation, and more jobs. That’s what we need right now in Wisconsin and across the country,” Gustafson said. “President Trump is doing what he does best, getting government out of the way so America can win. Wisconsin stands ready to lead with this kind of smart, America-first approach to AI.”
The public, however, doesn’t agree with Trump or Gustafson when it comes to data centers, which have been linked to higher consumer energy costs and very little jobs when completed.
In a poll released earlier this month by Libertas Network with a specific question from The Center Square regarding data centers, most U.S. voters oppose having data centers built in their community and even more oppose the data centers if tax incentives are awarded to have them built.
The poll asked voters specifically if they supported or opposed building new data centers for artificial intelligence in their community with 46% of respondents strongly or somewhat opposing the prospect, 36% strongly or somewhat supporting and 18% uncertain.
Wisconsin is moving forward with a couple of large data center investments, with public incentives.
Microsoft is in the first steps of building a $3.3 billion data center at the old Foxconn site in Racine County. That project is expected to begin in full by the end of next year.
There’s also a planned data center in its early stages in Port Washington. Developers there have recently closed on $50 million in home and land buys.
“President Trump understands that AI is the next frontier in global competition, and he’s making sure America leads from the front,” Gustafson added.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin saw the June unemployment rate go down in 24 of the state’s largest 35 cities over the month while the rates lowered in 63 counties and stayed the same in eight more, according to new numbers from the state’s Department of Workforce Development.
Wisconsin’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate went down to 3.2% in June, less than the 4.1% national rate.
Wisconsin’s labor force participation rate went down to 65.1% in June while the national rate decreased slightly to 62.3%.
Wisconsin saw 10 of its largest metropolitan areas show unemployment decreases while three of those areas remained the same. Twelve of the metropolitan areas saw unemployment decreases over the year while the rate in Sheboygan remained the same.
Menominee, meanwhile, was the only county that saw a month over month increase in unemployment rate while the rate increased in just four counties year over year.

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin state legislators have started circulating a bill to repeal Gov. Tony Evers’ 400-year school funding veto.
Evers’ veto in July 2023, which turned a temporary $325 per student K-12 funding increase – originally slated for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 school years – into a permanent increase through the year 2425, was recently upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court in April, The Center Square previously reported.
However, the court’s ruling suggested lawmakers could still draft legislation as a recourse to the governor’s partial veto, and Republicans are seeking to do just that.
“The pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock 402 years before this veto. It is hard to justify locking in a funding increase for just as long into the future,” the bill’s four co-authors said in a cosponsorship memo circulating at the state Capitol, WPR reported.
The bill would effectively reverse Evers’ 400-year veto, eliminating the $325 per pupil adjustment in the school district revenue limit formula beginning with the 2026-27 school year.
“One man locked in a tax-raising mechanism that no one voted for and no one approved,” the cosponsorship memo reads. “Evers’ move bypassed both the elected Legislature and the hard-working people who pay the bills.”
However, if the bill passes both chambers of the Legislature, it would ironically require Evers to not veto it in order to become law.
While the Senate had voted to override Evers’ original veto in September 2023, the Assembly never held a vote on the override, so the effort failed and the veto stood.
Will Flanders, the research director at Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, previously wrote, “The Governor is not a king, even if the state Supreme Court says he is. Given this increase, the legislature should fight hard against any further increases for public schools that are now set up for a boondoggle.”

(The Center Square) – Wisconsin has seen 23 fatal off-road UTV or ATV accidents so far this year.
Most of those who died in the crashes were not wearing either a helmet or seatbelt with the results of whether the crashes involved alcohol pending in many of the cases.
Wisconsin law requires all riders under the age of 18 to wear a helmet and both parents and mentors are encouraged by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to provide a positive example with both helmet and seatbelt use.
The DNR said that the number of youths using ATVs and UTVs continues to grow each year.
“We want every ride to be a safe one,” Lt. Jacob Holsclaw, Wisconsin DNR off-highway vehicle administrator, said in a statement. “Most ATV and UTV crashes involving youth are preventable with basic safety steps and education.”
The deaths ranged from a 6-year-old who died in a UTV rollover on July 10 to a 97-year-old who died in a crash with a motor vehicle on April 14.
The 6-year-old died while driving in South Lancaster with a 65-gallon water tank strapped to the UTV on the way to feed livestock when the machine rolled over while making a 90-degree turn and pinned the operator, the DNR said.
A 10-year-old UTV driver died in Hillsboro on July 2 while “drifting” on a UTV in a farm driveway and the UTV rolled over and pinned the driver.
Another 10-year-old died on May 19 in Dayton when the driver and a passenger were riding on a small UTV and an abrupt turn caused the UTV to tip onto the driver.
ATV safety certification is required for drivers once they turn 12 for anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1988. Drivers under 16 must operate age-appropriate vehicles.

(The Center Square)– A Milwaukee state representative wants privacy after police say someone tried to break into her home.
The Capitol Police say they are looking for the man captured on a doorbell camera as he was trying to enter state Rep. Priscilla Prado’s home late Monday night.
He didn’t get in, but police say he walked around her home for a while after trying the door. Prado hasn’t said much about the incident, but she did ask for privacy.
“Late last night, a disturbance occurred at my residence. Authorities have been notified and are actively investigating this situation. I am grateful that no one was injured,” Prado said in a statement. “This has been a deeply unsettling experience, and I appreciate the influx of concern. I respectfully ask for privacy and patience as law enforcement continues its work.”
The Capitol Police say the man appears to be in his 40s or 50s, about 6 feet tall and around 200 pounds. His pictures are online. Investigators are asking anyone who may know anything about the man to please reach out.
The incident comes a little more than a month after a gunman killed a Minnesota lawmaker and her husband and wounded a second lawmaker during a pair of shootings.
Those shootings prompted questions about security of Wisconsin state lawmakers, but legislative leaders said it was too soon to talk about changes in security at the Capitol and beyond.
Prado is a first-year Democratic state representative from Milwaukee’s south side. She won a special election to replace former Rep. Marisabel Cabrera, when Cabrera was elected as a judge.

(The Center Square) – While President Donald Trump’s job approval rating has is at 45%, most U.S. adults disapprove of specific issues like the tariffs, “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” and the Israel-Iran war, according to a new poll.
The majority of those responding – 55% – disapprove of the job Trump is doing, according to a new Marquette Law School Poll that surveyed 1,005 adults nationwide between July 7-16, 2025, with a margin of error of +/-3.4 percentage points.
In a similar May MLS poll, Trump’s job approval was 46% with disapproval at 54%.
“Republicans and Trump voters continue to express strong approval (86%), while Democrats are almost uniformly negative (93%),” the poll found. “Independents are substantially more negative than positive (62% disapprove), although approval rose in July with this group.”
The survey also included results on several key issues of the current administration, including deportation, tariffs, the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” and the Israel-Iran war.
The poll found that deportation in general is favored by 93% of Republicans, while 59% of Independents and 78% of Democrats oppose it.
However, deportation of immigrants who are long-time residents, with jobs and no criminal record, was found to receive more disapproval, with only 69% of Republicans approving but 67% of Independents and 88% of Democrats disapproving.
Among all adults surveyed, 28% responded saying tariffs help the U.S. economy, while 59% said tariffs hurt the economy and 12% said they don’t make much difference.
The split was also mainly partisan, with 58% of Republicans saying tariffs help the economy, but 60% of Independents and 91% of Democrats saying they hurt the economy. Only 14% of Republicans, 28% of Independents and 5% of Democrats said tariffs don’t make much difference.
Also, 65% of Independents and 94% of Democrats disapproved of Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” while 79% of Republicans support the law.
Across the board, the only issue where respondents gave Trump a net positive job approval was border security, with 54% approving and 46% disapproving.
However, all other issues surveyed received a net negative job approval from respondents, including immigration (53% disapproval), the Israel-Iran war (56% disapproval), the economy (57% disapproval), foreign policy (57% disapproval), inflation/cost of living (65% disapproval) and tariffs (65% disapproval).
When asked what the most important issue is to them, 34% of all respondents chose inflation and the cost of living, while 16% chose the economy and 14% said Medicare and Social Security.

(The Center Square) – Lawmakers in Wisconsin are looking to clarify the
rules for off-road vehicles that are registered in other states.
The Assembly’s Transportation Committee on Tuesday held a hearing on a plan, AB 221, that would treat all out of state ATVs and UTVs the same as those that are registered in the state.
“Unfortunately, out-of-state companies are encouraging Wisconsin residents to exploit a loophole, registering their recreational vehicles as commercial vehicles in South Dakota and Montana, and avoid Wisconsin’s rules,” Rep. Jeff Mursau, R-Crivitz, said. “These reclassifications are misleading and undermine our registration system, local control, and public safety.”
Mursau said courts have already “rejected this scheme” in individual cases, but he said the law remains “unclear.”
This bill closes the loophole ensuring that only vehicles meeting Wisconsin definition of ATV/UTV can operate on our public trails and routes,” he added.
The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, which has jurisdiction over those ATV/UTV routes said allowing out of state registrations also saps some of the money that Wisconsin uses to maintain its off-road trails and paths.
“When owners circumvent Wisconsin registration and trail pass regulations, and register their machines in other states, it does divert funds from our ATV and UTV program,” DNR Law Enforcement Policy Officer Matthew Wehn told lawmakers.
Registering ATVs and UTVs in other states can also lead drivers to take them out on regular roads. Wehn and lawmakers said that’s dangerous in Wisconsin.
“Allowing operation by ATVs or UTVs as a motor vehicle does blur the line between motor vehicles and ATVs and UTVs, it creates confusion for the public law enforcement motor vehicle operators,” Wehn added.
While the plan was before lawmakers on Tuesday, it will likely be months before it gets a vote in either the Assembly or the State Senate.