The average sales price of a condominium in downtown Milwaukee is up 23% compared with 2018, which demonstrates the lack of supply in the area, according to a report from the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors.
On Thursday, the association released unit sales figures for the downtown market for the period covering Jan. 1 through May 21. GMAR then compared that data to the first-half sales data of previous years.
So far in 2019, 125 downtown condo units have been sold at an average sale price of nearly $399,000. This is a 23% increase compared with the first six months of sales data from 2018. In fact, it is the largest year-over-year increase in downtown condo sales price in the data that GMAR analyzed, which reached back to 2007.
“This is really indicative of the tight market,” said Mike Ruzicka, president of GMAR.
The units sold spent 62 days on the market, on average. This is a 13% increase from the 55 days on average in 2018.
It’s important to note that the year-over-year comparison isn’t an exact one, given that the 2019 sample is not yet at 6 months.
Ruzicka noted that the Great Recession had a significant impact on the condo market similar to the housing market as a whole. But things turned around in 2015, he added. From the time of the recession and leading up to that point, many of the properties that were being sold were either foreclosures or short sales. From that point on things have turned around to a more traditional market, he said.
Now, the primary issue is that there aren’t enough downtown condo units available to meet demand, Ruzicka added.
GMAR released this market data ahead of the annual Downtown Diggs open house. The tour features available condos in the downtown area and nearby neighborhoods, including the Historic Third Ward and the East Side.
The event, which is scheduled to take place Saturday, June 1, is put on by GMAR and held in conjunction with Milwaukee Downtown Business Improvement District No. 21’s Downtown Dining Week.
