Housing Market Continues To Trend Upward

Wisconsin’s housing market is strong compared to the same time last year, with both sales and prices higher than where they were.

Sales of existing homes are up 9.2 percent compared to April 2012. The median price is also up, according to Marquette University economist David Clark. He crunches the numbers for the Wisconsin Realtors Association.

While prices are up, Clark says it seems the type of mid market house is higher quality than before.

“It may well be that the 50th percentile home, the median-priced home, this year is a larger home or a home that is in a better location than in a previous year.”

The median priced Wisconsin home is now $138,000. That’s up nearly 8 percent compared to last year.

Clark says a well-qualified buyer can get a 30-year mortgage at 3.8 percent. He says Wisconsin’s market never took the dives other states like Arizona, Nevada, California, Florida did.

“And that’s an improving housing market even though the job growth in the state has been pretty stagnant over the last year. There’s been a slight net addition of jobs but not a substantial one. Our unemployment rate is in the low 7’s [percentiles] in spite of that we’ve seen some pretty consistent upwards movement in sales volume and consistent upward movement in prices.”

Clark says Wisconsin also has a strong housing affordability rating compared to other states.