(Radio Iowa) – Officials in a city that’s been called the southern gateway to the Iowa Great Lakes have hired an architectural firm to study the housing market in Milford. Charlie Cowell, a lead consultant on the project, says Milford is like other lake communities in the Midwest that draw tons of visitors in the summer months and that drives up housing prices for year round residents.

According to Realtor-dot-com, 470-thousand dollars is the median listing price for homes that are for sale right now in Milford and that’s 24-and-a-half percent higher than a year ago. In late July, Milford’s City Council approved spending 18-thousand dollars on the housing research project and a final report should be ready by the end of the year.