May home sales rise 18.2% in Wisconsin, prices gain 4.3%, Realtors report
Metro Milwaukee home sales increase 12.9%, while prices rise 8.4%
The
ongoing recovery of the housing market continued last month as sales of
existing homes in Wisconsin rose 18.2% from sales in May 2012, the
Wisconsin Realtors Association said Monday.
The increase marked the 23rd straight month of positive sales growth.
Prices were up, too. The median price for a Wisconsin home last month was $144,000, up 4.3% from a year earlier.
Perhaps even more encouraging: New listings rose by 16.4% statewide, compared with May 2012.
That uptick is a new development, and a welcome one, said Marquette University economics professor David Clark, who combs through the data for the Realtors group.
"You're finding suppliers basically saying this is a good time to jump back into this market if they had a home that didn't sell and they pulled it off the market for a while," Clark said.
The rising supply, he said, will tend to rein in price increases prompted by strong demand.
Taken together, the latest data and the trends of the last year or so could well signal a return to a more normal housing market as Wisconsin and the country shake off the effects of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, he said.
"It's been a bit of a slog," Clark said. "It was a deep recession."
Sales in the four-county metropolitan Milwaukee area totaled 1,832 in May, up 12.9% from the 1,622 sales of a year ago, the Realtors group reported.
The median price in the area rose 8.4%, to $168,000.
The metro-wide price data masks large local differences. The median price in Milwaukee County, for example, was just $125,000 (up 10.9%), while the median price in Waukesha County was $228,900 (up 2.6%).
The state's strongest activity by far, however, was in Dane County.
Alone, it accounted for nearly a fourth of the statewide increase of 1,123 home sales in May. The increase in Dane County was nearly 30% larger than the increase in the much bigger, four-county metropolitan Milwaukee area.
David Stark, president of Stark Company Realtors, in Madison, credits the stable economy in an area that is home to two major public-sector employers, the state government and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"We were fortunate during the downturn to not experience some of the price declines and general difficulties with foreclosures that some of the other markets did," he said. "Now that conditions have turned around, interest rates are very favorable, and of course we have a highly educated population here."
About 46% of county residents hold a college degree — 20 points above the statewide figure.
"They know a deal when they see one, they know an opportunity when they see one, and they're jumping on it very quickly," Stark said. "There was a lot of pent-up demand, I think, in Dane County. And frankly, I think a lot of the downturn in Dane County through the recession was much more fear-based than economically based.
"Now that those fears are dissipated, people are free to come out and do what they wanted to do all along, and they're doing it in big numbers," he said.
April and May are springboard months for Wisconsin home sales, which typically peak in June.
Last month's sales represented the strongest May performance in at least six years. Prices remain below pre-recession levels, but have been creeping closer in recent months. Since early 2012, the statewide median price has been higher than the year before in every month but one.
"Once it became clear that those prices were starting to move up, then I think that got an awful lot of buyers off the fence," Clark said.
Potential sellers seem to have gotten the signal as well. Clark said it appears that people who had pulled their homes off the market during the downturn are reconsidering.
There have been encouraging signs nationally, too. The widely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index was up 11% in March, the most recent month reported. The year-over-year increase was the largest since April 2006.
In Wisconsin, sales for the first five months of 2013 are up 13.2% from a year ago. January-through-May listings, however, are down 1.4% from a year earlier.
The increase marked the 23rd straight month of positive sales growth.
Prices were up, too. The median price for a Wisconsin home last month was $144,000, up 4.3% from a year earlier.
Perhaps even more encouraging: New listings rose by 16.4% statewide, compared with May 2012.
That uptick is a new development, and a welcome one, said Marquette University economics professor David Clark, who combs through the data for the Realtors group.
"You're finding suppliers basically saying this is a good time to jump back into this market if they had a home that didn't sell and they pulled it off the market for a while," Clark said.
The rising supply, he said, will tend to rein in price increases prompted by strong demand.
Taken together, the latest data and the trends of the last year or so could well signal a return to a more normal housing market as Wisconsin and the country shake off the effects of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, he said.
"It's been a bit of a slog," Clark said. "It was a deep recession."
Sales in the four-county metropolitan Milwaukee area totaled 1,832 in May, up 12.9% from the 1,622 sales of a year ago, the Realtors group reported.
The median price in the area rose 8.4%, to $168,000.
The metro-wide price data masks large local differences. The median price in Milwaukee County, for example, was just $125,000 (up 10.9%), while the median price in Waukesha County was $228,900 (up 2.6%).
The state's strongest activity by far, however, was in Dane County.
Alone, it accounted for nearly a fourth of the statewide increase of 1,123 home sales in May. The increase in Dane County was nearly 30% larger than the increase in the much bigger, four-county metropolitan Milwaukee area.
David Stark, president of Stark Company Realtors, in Madison, credits the stable economy in an area that is home to two major public-sector employers, the state government and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
"We were fortunate during the downturn to not experience some of the price declines and general difficulties with foreclosures that some of the other markets did," he said. "Now that conditions have turned around, interest rates are very favorable, and of course we have a highly educated population here."
About 46% of county residents hold a college degree — 20 points above the statewide figure.
"They know a deal when they see one, they know an opportunity when they see one, and they're jumping on it very quickly," Stark said. "There was a lot of pent-up demand, I think, in Dane County. And frankly, I think a lot of the downturn in Dane County through the recession was much more fear-based than economically based.
"Now that those fears are dissipated, people are free to come out and do what they wanted to do all along, and they're doing it in big numbers," he said.
April and May are springboard months for Wisconsin home sales, which typically peak in June.
Last month's sales represented the strongest May performance in at least six years. Prices remain below pre-recession levels, but have been creeping closer in recent months. Since early 2012, the statewide median price has been higher than the year before in every month but one.
"Once it became clear that those prices were starting to move up, then I think that got an awful lot of buyers off the fence," Clark said.
Potential sellers seem to have gotten the signal as well. Clark said it appears that people who had pulled their homes off the market during the downturn are reconsidering.
There have been encouraging signs nationally, too. The widely watched Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index was up 11% in March, the most recent month reported. The year-over-year increase was the largest since April 2006.
In Wisconsin, sales for the first five months of 2013 are up 13.2% from a year ago. January-through-May listings, however, are down 1.4% from a year earlier.
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