As real estate agents, buyers, and sellers in Milwaukee’s four-county metro region get ready for the busy spring and summer season, data from the
Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors (GMAR) indicates a bustling market despite the ongoing dearth of single-family homes on the market.
Data released this week by the association shows combined home sales in Milwaukee, Washington, Waukesha, and Ozaukee counties were up 5.2% year-over-year in March. That figure represents the third straight month of year-over-year increases in the metro area, and a 6.2% increase as a whole for the first quarter of 2024, when compared to the first quarter of 2023.
Sales in the entire southeastern Wisconsin region, which takes into account sales in all seven counties, including Racine, Kenosha and Walworth, were up by 4.9% in the first quarter, year-over-year.
Listings also saw an uptick, rising by 4.4% in March and 9.9% through the 1st quarter compared to 2023 in the metro area, and by 1.6% and 9.1% respectively in the greater seven-county region.
Sale prices continued to climb during the first quarter, with an increase of 8.9% in the metro area, and a 11.6% increase in the seven-county region.
New homes going fast
The increase in both listings and sales might indicate that sellers and buyers are adjusting to the presence of higher interest rates as a long-term reality, says the GMAR report. But the surge in prices can be attributed to the persistent issue of limited new listings and construction, a problem that has endured for years, the report states.
The average home price in the seven-county region was $357,827 during the first quarter of 2023. In the first quarter of 2024 it was $399,502.
There is, however, a glimmer of hope to report on the new construction front, according to the association.
Through February, 288 new construction permits were taken out in the four-county metro area, 44.5% above the same period in 2023, good news but still well below the production level needed to meet demand, the GMAR says.
“New construction would normally add 3,000 - 4,000 units to the market annually, but that market segment has been down by about 50% since the Great Recession,” states
Mike Ruzicka, GMAR president. “The biggest story this month is that as new homes come on the market, they are being gobbled up right away, similar to the old video game Pac-Man’ eating flashing dots.”
As in reports past, Ruzicka highlighted the “significant, long-term danger” that exists if the region does not create additional supply in the form of single-family and condominium units.
“Thousands of would-be homeowners will be forced into rental units, unable to save for a down payment and foregoing the opportunity to build wealth through a home’s equity – as well as all of the other benefits of homeownership,” he said. “That will result in problems decades down the road when families do not have enough home equity to tap into for college expenses, to remodel their home, or for emergencies.”
