Wisconsin Home Sales Climb In September After Summer Slide

Wisconsin home sales rose in September after lagging last year’s figures during the peak homebuying months.

The latest report from the Wisconsin Realtors Association found 7,368 sales of existing homes last month, up 5.2 percent from September 2018.

This year’s sales mostly lagged last year’s numbers during the key period between May and August, in part because the number of homes for sale has long been in decline.

But economist David Clark of Marquette University said the market saw “a nice jump in new listings” in September. “Those jumped 5.1 percent,” he said.

The September sales gains put total sales for the first nine months of the year just 2 percent behind 2018’s figures.

Clark said the fourth quarter of the year doesn’t usually see enough activity to make up that difference, though he said the last three months of 2018 were busier than usual.

“And so if that’s the case (this year), it may well be that we can close a bit more of the gap,” he said. “It’s just going to be difficult to close it all.”

The median price of a home rose 5.4 percent in September to $195,000.