Good morning.
Thursday in Whitewater will see scattered afternoon showers with a high of 76. Sunrise is 5:17 and sunset is 8:37 for 15 hours 20 minutes of daylight. The moon is a waxing gibbous with 82.8 percent of its visible disk illuminated.
On this day in 1950, the Korean War begins when North Korea invades South Korea.
Even if yesterday’s men want to pretend Whitewater is an island — and she’s not an island — sooner or later, an understanding of something more and better would take hold. So it has. News organizations from across the state have noticed Whitewater’s progress.
Consider recent headlines.
Development haven: Several commercial, residential projects ongoing in Whitewater:
Harbor Homes continues to build single-family homes in the Park Crest subdivision, and have pulled all their remaining building permits.
US Shelter is continuing to build owner-occupied duplexes on the west side of the city.
The Common Council also approved the sale of 3.5 acres of City-owned land to Tanis Construction, who will be building at least four owner-occupied single-family homes on an infill site a short distance from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater campus.
“We do have a housing crisis,” Becker said. “We’ve had a shortage of new construction housing since the Great Recession, and that’s true of our entire region.”
Before the Great Recession, housing development in Jefferson County and Wisconsin was more than double its current rate.
In 2005, Jefferson County’s net new construction rate was 3.1%, Wisconsin’s was 2.8%, and inflation was 3.4%,” the report [a recent Wisconsin Policy Forum report] states. In 2025, Jefferson’s rate was 0.7%, the state’s was nearly 1.7%, and inflation was 2.6%.
Since 2011, Jefferson County’s rate of net new construction has frequently trailed both the statewide average and inflation.
However, those trends in Whitewater are climbing. And while multifamily housing for students has always remained consistent, Becker again emphasized the need for all housing in the area, especially single family.
See Zack Goodrow, Development haven: Several commercial, residential projects ongoing in Whitewater, Daily Jefferson County Union, June 4, 2026.
How Whitewater is trying to build more housing for university grads:
A recent report from the Wisconsin Policy Forum found development and housing construction in Jefferson County, as in many other communities, has lagged behind demand since the Great Recession.
“Nestled between Milwaukee and Madison and bisected by Interstate 94, Jefferson County in theory has strong opportunities for development,” the report says. “In practice, that has not materialized.”
The slower development has impacted local government coffers through reduced property tax intakes and declining public school enrollment, leading to lower levels of state assistance, even as housing costs rise. In April 2021, the average home sale in Jefferson County was roughly $250,000. This April, it was $394,000, above the statewide average, according to Redfin figures.
“Over time, new construction might bring businesses, jobs, and a variety of residents, including families with children. It might also help to limit increases in housing costs for residents as the population grows,” the Wisconsin Policy Forum report says.
See Will Briggs, How Whitewater is trying to build more housing for university grads, Capital Times, June 2, 2026.
Whitewater neighbors witness new housing construction across the city:
Whitewater hopes to become a place where more people live when classes are not in session. Walworth County’s largest city is poised to grow even more with new housing.
[…]
Stonehaven developer Tim Vandeville says the first homes could be ready for families in 60 days since the homes are being built off-site and moved to the site. He said he wants to provide new housing as soon as he can because of the demand.
“There’s an entire generation of people that are being priced out of the market in general, and future buyers will be completely priced out,” Vandeville said. “For us, it was a mission about tackling affordability and attainability.”
The Stonehaven development is not the only new addition to the neighborhood. Whitewater City Council also approved the future construction of a Piggly Wiggly grocery store and early child education center on Bluff Road during their meeting Tuesday night.
See Taj Simmons, Whitewater neighbors witness new housing construction across the city, TMJ4, June 17, 2026.
There is, perhaps, a futile hope among those few who have made themselves adversaries of progress that they’ll someday get back to their cronyism. Too late: their conflict is not principally with the municipal government but rather with those of us who support the fulfillment of genuine community needs.
This libertarian blogger can say of his own view that there will be no relenting now, either in support of recent progress or in opposition to progress’s adversaries.
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Upcoming posts (in no decided order): A Whitewater Comparative Analysis, Whitewater’s Workforce, and a New Ethics Ordinance.
Meet the team tailoring spacesuits for lunar astronauts: