The cost of building in Door County from the perspectives of industry professionals and potential home builders

Rick and Robyn Weilbaker and their two children moved to Washington Island from Indiana in 2019 after Robyn, who is a nurse practitioner, was recruited to work at the Door County Medical Center clinic on the island.

They liked the small town feel, the close-knit community and the cooler summers, she said, and knew right away that they wanted to be island residents. “Everyone waves at you,” Robyn said of the island tradition. 

Once they decided to move, things began falling into place. Robyn accepted the employment offer, and their house in Indiana sold within 24 hours of being listed. 

The only problem was finding a place to live. Rick said he started calling around searching for leads on anything for sale or for rent in June 2019. 

“We were operating on blind faith,” Robyn said. 

Blind faith and several phone calls led them to a rental house that became their home for the next four years. In that time, Robyn continued with her medical career, Rick was hired as the school bus driver and later as a bank teller, and their children attended the island school. Rick joined the volunteer fire department. The family made friends and weathered the Covid pandemic. Their Indiana relatives visited and vacationed on the island. 

The Weilbakers also kept an eye on real estate, but everything was either too small or too expensive, Rick said. They were looking for a house with three bedrooms and two bathrooms or a bath and a half, to accommodate the four people, two dogs and one cat in their household, he said. The few houses that were for sale within their size and price range were old and needed a lot of work.  

“We’d have been house poor before we even moved in,” Robyn said. 

So they pivoted and purchased some land in 2020, making plans to build their “forever home.” The couple hired a local architect and secured a builder, but they soon learned it was going to cost them almost double their budget of $300,000-$400,000 to build their dream house. They had decided to build at a time when costs were beginning to take a sharp rise. 

The architect “drew me a beautiful house,” Robyn said a little wistfully. “I paid him for it and I won’t even get to build it.”  

Priced out

Sturgeon Bay Alderman Spencer Gustafson represents District 4 on the city council and posts regular updates on social media about housing developments planned within the city. The city has been involved in a few developments in which the homes are intended to be affordable for workforce members. (Click here for more information about how Knock is defining terms such as “workforce” and “affordable” for this series.)

Some Door County residents have complained that these homes are not affordable enough and that there is a need for homes for the elderly, disabled residents and households that fall into the low or very low income categories.

“Affordable housing” refers to housing costs that are 30 percent or less of a household’s income. A family of four with a total income of $50,400 (the high end of what is designated as “very low income” or 30 to 50 percent of AMI) would be able to spend $15,120 annually on housing. That is  $1,260 each month for all housing expenses. 

Owning an average home in Door County would not be affordable at all for that family of four. The average home price in Door County is $426,119, according to Zillow and mortgage rates are around 7 percent. 

Those realities mean that monthly payments for housing expenses far exceed many households’ affordability thresholds, Gustafson said in an email. 

 “When you factor in property taxes, insurance, and utilities, homeownership becomes even less attainable,” he said. 

“Because of these realities, building new homes at truly affordable prices is extremely difficult right now,” he added.“On the positive side, we do have several apartment developments offering rents that fall within affordable ranges, and the city is working to incentivize the sale of city-owned lots for housing. While this can help bring down costs slightly, it still doesn’t offset the full impact of high construction costs and interest rates.”

Developing and building actually affordable homes, whether apartments or houses, for those who make less than the AMI, requires subsidies, incentives or some form of assistance, local officials and developers have said. 

For low-income households or those that fall under United Way’s Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed (ALICE) designation, building a home in Door County is completely out of reach without some form of assistance. The ALICE population represents working people who are earning above the Federal Poverty Level—$32,150 for a family of four—but still struggling to pay for basic necessities.

Sticker shock

“I never used to talk budget in the first meeting (with prospective clients),” said Craig Coursin, the owner of Carlson Erickson Builders in Baileys Harbor “Now I do. They hand me a plan for $300,000 and I tell them it’s going to be more like $900,000. I’m destroying their dreams.” 

Coursin has been in the construction and architecture business for 44 years and has owned Carlson Erickson Builders for seven years. The firm mostly builds “high end,” according to Coursin, such as second homes, vacation homes or retirement homes. Carlson Erickson Builders also does additions and remodelling projects, he added. 

Material costs typically go up annually, keeping pace with inflation, but during the pandemic, that “skyrocketed,” Coursin said. Some of those costs have come back down, such as lumber. During the Covid pandemic, sheets of plywood were up from $18 or $20 per panel to $100, he said, and those prices are about $30 per panel now. 

“Other things, like concrete, keep going up,” Coursin said. “Mechanical, electrical, plumbing, roofing, insulation, siding—it’s gone up but I haven’t seen it come back down. They bounced up and stayed there. The increase is considerable.”

The National Association of Homebuilders is one of the largest trade organizations in the U.S., representing homebuilders, developers, contractors and others in the construction industry. In a 2024 report on building supply costs, the association found that lumber was the only major building material to have come down in price since the pandemic. From 2020 to 2021, lumber prices increased more than 300 percent. 

Other materials have remained above pre-pandemic levels, including drywall, concrete and steel. Drywall increased by about 44 percent from 2020 to 2022, only falling back down b\percent from 2022 costs in 2023. 

Concrete prices went up by a little more than 10 percent each year for two years in a row in 2022 and 2023. Steel had a record-breaking cost increase of about 90 percent in 2021. After some fluctuation in 2022 and 2023, steel prices remain 65 percent higher than they were in 2020. 

Coursin estimated that building an “average” home in Door County – two to three bedrooms and 2,500 square feet or less – will cost about $350 per square foot, and $450 to $500 per square foot for higher end or luxury homes. A modular home is more affordable, he said, at about $250 per square foot. Building prices overall have gone up $75 to $100 per square foot in just a few years, he added. 

“It’s always laughable to me, talking about 8 percent inflation. This is way beyond that.” Coursin said.

The Weilbakers learned quickly how far beyond their budget building a home was when they started getting estimates for their project. The architect who drew their house plans estimated it would cost them around $400,000 to build it. Initially, the builder they wanted to hire gave a similar budget. Once solid estimates started coming in, however, the Weilbakers learned their dream home would be closer to $750,000. 

The house the family wanted to build was around 2,000 square feet, nothing ostentatious, Robyn said. “It was unassuming from the outside and there wasn’t going to be a lot of gingerbread inside. We wanted room for the dogs and the kids and space for everyone to be.” 

The couple looked at the costs of prefabricated homes on a basic rectangle foundation and even that was beyond their budget, Robyn added. 

They were most surprised by the costs of getting electricity to the property, drilling a well and putting in a septic system and a driveway, the couple said. They would have spent $100,000 “before even putting a house up,” Robyn said. 

A lot of it was timing. The Weilbakers were looking to build right when pandemic pricing was soaring and the real estate market was booming. 

The longer they waited, hoping prices would go down, the more expensive things got, Robyn added, and the timeline was not really in their control. It was based on the availability of contractors and tradespeople. For example, well-drilling companies make infrequent trips to Washington Island, stacking jobs so they only have to visit a couple of times a year. 

With so many layers of difficulty, the Weilbakers saw their dream home move out of reach. 

“It’s a hell of an onion to peel,” Rick said. 

Supply layer

Building costs are higher in Door County than some other places for a few reasons. Supplies need to travel long distances, especially if you’re building in the northern part of the county. In July, Wisconsin Building Supply, formerly Lampert Lumber, closed its Sister Bay location. The company still has a lumber yard in Sturgeon Bay, but there is no longer one on the peninsula north of the city. 

A lack of suppliers is causing difficulty for some local builders. ES Olsson Construction in Baileys Harbor has been in business since 2002. The company specializes in high-end custom homes and historic renovation. 

ES Olsson is primarily based in northern Door County, Brynn Swanson, office manager, wrote in an email. Losing the Wisconsin Building Supply in Sister Bay means increased travel time to get lumber or larger quantities of things they need, she said.  

Joseph Cornell has been working with his brother Aaron as Island Builders on Washington Island since the early 2000s. His company uses Braun Building Center in Manitowoc for their building supply needs. 

Braun makes deliveries to Washington Island and other places in Door County and does not charge extra for mileage. They do charge for the cost of the ferry trip to the island which can be anywhere from $200 to $400. That cost is passed on to the customer, company owner Paul Braun, said.

There has been a large increase in Door County customers over the last two years, Braun said, and the building supply center does at least $500,000 worth of business in Door County every year, Braun said. Overall, the building industry has changed “dramatically” in the last decade, he said. 

There have been technological advances in building materials like trusses, windows, roofing and siding, and they are getting better and more cost-effective, according to Braun. He acknowledged that the cost of things went very high during the Covid pandemic, and though prices have stabilized, they have not come back down to pre-pandemic levels. 

With high building and land costs, Braun said he is surprised by how much building is happening. 

“We’re as busy as we’ve ever been,” he said. “July was the busiest month in history for the company.” 

Infrastructure and labor layers

An additional building expense in Door County and other rural areas is infrastructure. Apart from Sturgeon Bay and Sister Bay, locations in Door County do not have access to municipal water systems. Egg Harbor and Ephraim both have municipal sewer. Also, rural properties often need to have electrical poles, wires and transformers installed to get service to where homeowners want to build. 

These costs are significant, as the Weilbakers discovered. Septic systems can range anywhere from $15,000 to $35,000 depending on type and size of the system and drilling a well costs upwards of $30,000, according to local excavators. Both are dependent on geographical location and depth required. 

The average cost of utility installation is around $20,000, but can be much higher depending on the remoteness of the property, according to 2025 data from Angi (formerly Angie’s List), an online platform that connects homeowners with service providers. 

Once the infrastructure is in place and supplies are ordered, it is necessary to have skilled tradespeople to do the work. Island Builders builds two or three houses every year, Cornell said, but the company definitely could build more houses if he could hire more employees. 

Cornell said his business currently has four employees, including him and his brother. They have been working in two-person crews on a waiting list of two years for new construction, he said. 

Island Builders is one of three building companies located on Washington Island, and according to Cornell, all three companies are in the same boat when it comes to having more work than they can handle. 

There are at least two dozen building companies throughout the mainland of Door County, and Cornell said he doubts any of them are hurting for work. Rather, they are likely hurting for workers, he said. 

ES Olsson Construction is one of them. A lack of workforce housing is affecting the company’s ability to build more homes, Swanson said.

“We can navigate all the other obstacles, but it takes a team to build these homes,” she said. “We are fortunate to have our amazing guys, but most of them commute from Sturgeon Bay. There is no available housing for new potential carpenters, so we cannot grow, which makes taking on new jobs (projects) much harder.” 

Zoning layer

Builders in Door County referred to zoning regulations, particularly shoreland zoning, as often holding up projects as they wait for approvals. Shoreland zoning is meant to protect water quality, control erosion and maintain habitat. 

Door County’s shoreland ordinances address setbacks, vegetation buffers and impervious surfaces.

“The permitting process is fair but complicated as we deal mainly with the shoreland zoning restrictions,” Swanson from ES Olsson said. The Door County Land Use Services Department, which handles zoning for parts of the county that do not have their own zoning rules, has been dealing with staffing issues and backlogged permits for at least a couple years now, as Knock reported earlier this year.  

“The zoning department is understaffed and has a backlog that makes the building process longer,” Swanson said. 

County zoning regulations require buildings be a minimum of 750 square feet and limit the amount of time RVs or campers can be kept on undeveloped property. These particular regulations are preventing potential creative solutions to housing affordability issues, according to Cheryl Baker, a frustrated Washington Island property owner.

Airstream living 

Building costs, backed-up builders and zoning regulations have Cheryl and John Baker in “a Catch-22,” Cheryl said.

In 2020, the couple purchased two parcels of undeveloped land side-by-side on the east side of Washington Island to build their little piece of northwoods heaven. Cheryl spent her childhood summers in Minnesota lake country, and her first husband’s family has property on the island, where her son spent all his childhood summers. 

The Bakers were “shocked” at costs when they started looking into building a small vacation home. Just as the Weilbakers discovered, initial infrastructure costs were estimated to be almost $100,000. Cheryl said she also had a hard time getting a hold of builders. 

“No one would call me back,” she said. And when they did, they quoted years-long wait times. Building materials and labor kept increasing, and even at the minimum 750 square feet, building proved to be too much of a financial reach for the Bakers. 

The couple would consider building a tiny home – a dwelling 400 square feet or less – but those are not allowed by county zoning codes, Cheryl said. She started looking into putting a trailer or camper on the property instead. The Bakers purchased an Airstream trailer, which they have been staying in when they visit their island home away from home, she said. 

According to zoning regulations, a property owner is allowed to have a trailer or camper on an undeveloped parcel for 28 days every year. Because the Bakers own two adjacent parcels, that gives them 56 days total to live on their land. They would like to be there more.

The Bakers are considering petitioning for a variance to allow them to keep their Airstream trailer on the property for longer because they cannot afford to build right now. 

One happy ending 

The Weilbakers ultimately ended up buying a house on Washington Island. They heard about the property through word-of-mouth and in a stroke of luck, the house almost perfectly suits their family, Robyn said.

In the end the family got to stay in the community they love and Washington Island did not lose a medical professional due to housing issues. But Rick and Robyn still had to stretch their budget to afford the house they live in now. 

The Weilbakers are at the higher end of workforce earnings–their household income is more than the Area Median Income of $103,700 for a family of four. Over the years they have made sound investments and hold steady, good-paying jobs, according to the couple. But they are still spending at least 38 percent of their income on housing, more than the 30 percent that’s considered affordable.

Correction: A previous version of this story, and an accompanying photo caption, misstated the number of days for which a property owner is allowed to have a trailer or camper on an undeveloped parcel each year. The correct number is 28 days, not 30. The story and caption have been corrected.