The City of Marshfield is in an enviable position as a jobs importer, drawing a large daily working population from the surrounding region. But while employment has been growing, the City population has not, and limited new housing is being built. The City hired MSA to evaluate the housing market, identify gaps between supply and demand, and propose strategies to close those gaps.

MSA developed a methodology that examined the community from demographic, socioeconomic, physical, and economic perspectives. Data from a variety of sources describing the housing stock and market were supplemented with interviews of key individuals familiar with the market and a community survey to assess opinions about the City’s housing options. Gaps in the supply of housing were identified, and strategies to close those gaps proposed.

This project included the compilation and production of a variety of maps depicting such items as age of residential structure, number of commercial (rental) units by structure, property value per square foot of living area, single-family residential structures by number of stories, and more. MSA utilized the City’s CAD base parcels in the creation of this project in conjunction with property description files created by MSA to create these unique “snapshots” of the community’s residential fabric. MSA updated this study in 2019 and the community is beginning to implement a number of the proposed solutions.