State home sales down 34 percent in November, but prices stable

Homes sales in Wisconsin were down 34 percent in November, according to data released by the Wisconsin Realtors Association.
However, the median sale price in the state held steady in November, dipping just $50 to $135,950.
“These current market figures continue to reflect the distortions caused by the two federal homebuyer tax credit programs last year,” said John Horning, executive vice president of Brookfield-based Shorewest Realtors and chairman of the WRA board of directors. “The expiration of the first tax credit created artificially high sales last November and
the expiration of the second tax credit in June pushed 2010 sales into the first half of the year. Combined, those events make November 2010 numbers look very weak. The first eleven months of 2010 was very similar to the same period in 2009, with total sales down just 8.0 percent compared to last year, and prices down less than one percent."