Wisconsin Home Sales For 2019 Pull Nearly Even With 2018

Wisconsin’s 2019 real estate market figures ended with being nearly even with 2018’s.

The latest report from the Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA) found 5,705 sales of existing homes in December, up 14.8 percent from December 2018.

While home sales in 2019 lagged the 2018 numbers throughout the year, the December 2019 increase pushed sales for the year just a tenth of a percent behind 2018.

The WRA reported 82,080 sales in 2019, compared to 82,198 the previous year.

Economist David Clark of Marquette University said the report shows how consistent the existing home market has been in Wisconsin.

“When you look at the sales total for all of 2019, it looks very similar to the last three to four years, where we’ve been in the 80,000-plus total sales range,” he said.

Clark said the fundamentals of the market have remained the same in recent years. Economic growth has kept demand for homes strong, but inventory, or the number of homes for sale in the state, has been declining.

That’s fueled an increase in home prices, with the median home price rising 10.1 percent last month, to $197,000, compared to December 2018.

Clark said the economic indicators suggest 2020 could look very much the same as the last few years.

“I think we’re well-positioned to repeat what’s been happening the last couple of years — solid sales, but sales that certainly aren’t growing at a robust pace — for 2020,” he said.