For three of the last four months, home sales in the Milwaukee metropolitan area were down, despite this being the height of the selling season.
In August, home sales were down 1.6 percent from August 2017, with 2,119 homes sold last month. The slowdown continues to be attributed to a lack of affordable inventory, which has been the case all year, and last year.
There are many first time homebuyers and empty nesters in the market looking to buy homes, but few listings under $300,000. Some brokers are even reporting a limited supply of homes between $300,000 and $400,000, said Mike Ruzicka with the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors.
In the four-county metropolitan area, homes under $300,000 accounted for 71 percent of the home sold in August.
The sharpest decline in home sales last month was in Ozaukee County, which saw an 18 percent decrease. There was an approximate 3 percent decrease in Waukesha and Washington counties and a 1.8 percent decrease in Milwaukee County.
The decrease is directly attributed to the amount of homes listed. For example, Ozaukee County had 8 percent fewer homes listed in August compared to August 2017, according to GMAR data. Waukesha and Washington counties had 2.6 and 2.8 percent fewer homes listed, respectively, and Milwaukee County had 1 percent fewer homes listed than August 2017.
Since the beginning of 2018, the four-county metro area had 19,335 homes listed, 5.6 percent fewer than in 2017.
Despite the slow summer, home sales are still up for the year, Ruzicka said. There were 14,383 total sales in the first eight months of the year, a 1 percent increase over 2017.
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