Wisconsin's real estate market is continuing to post double digit gains. The Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA) reports sales of existing homes stayed strong this winter, even though this is the slowest time of year. February marked the twentieth month in a row that home sales grew by double digits. Compared to last February, sales this year were up by 11.7 percent. David Clark is a Marquette University economist and compiles the numbers for the WRA. He says the number of homes on the market shot up during the recession, but has now come down. Clark says that means stronger prices for sellers. "While those [numbers] increased dramatically during the recession and continued to increase coming out of the recession until about a year and a half ago, those have really dropped substantially. We were over 72,000 homes in the state at one point." Clark says now there are more like 46,000 existing homes for sale in Wisconsin. Time spent on the market has also dropped. Clark says once it could take a year to sell, the time now averages 8-9 months. He says winter in Wisconsin is the slowest time of year to move a house. December, January, and February account for less than 15 percent of annual sales: "…May, June, July, and August are accounting for over 40-percent of the sales volume." The WRA says the median home price in February went up by 6 percent compared to last year. It now sits at $122,000.
|
