The U.S. housing market showed signs of cooling in many of the country’s 45 largest metro areas in December, though the Milwaukee metro area performed better than others in certain metrics, according to realtor.com’s December housing report.
According to the report, the largest markets saw a 10 percent increase in inventory, compared to a nationwide average of 5 percent.
Homes sold at a pace of 80 days in December, three days faster than the previous year. This rate is decelerating, however, as December 2017 saw homes sell six days faster compared with the year before. But properties in Milwaukee sold 11 days faster in December compared to 2017. In fact, the only area to see a larger improvement in days on the market than Milwaukee was Birmingham, Alabama, which saw homes sell 12 days faster than in 2017.
Typical properties on the list of the top 45 metro areas spent the same amount of time on the market as the previous year, while 19 markets saw the typical property actually spend more time on the market.
The median U.S. listing price grew 7 percent year-over-year in December to $289,000. This was lower than last year’s increase of 8 percent. Milwaukee actually saw the largest growth in listing price for the month, at 14 percent compared with the previous year. Following that was Indianapolis and Kansas City, Missouri, at 12 percent each. Only 11 markets outpaced the national growth rate.
The Milwaukee area also saw a 6 percent drop in active listings and a 4 percent increase in new listings compared with the same month in 2017. The share of price-reduced homes increased by 4 percent year-over-year.
Read more economic data reports at the BizTracker page.
