Wisconsin Home Prices Keep Rising, But Not Sales

The latest Wisconsin housing figures show the low number of existing homes for sale continues to hamper the market.

The Wisconsin Realtors Association released its latest monthly housing report Monday.

It shows the number of existing homes for sale in the state last month was 13.9 percent lower than in July 2016. As a result, July home sales were down 5 percent year to year.

Home sales in 2016 were the highest in over a decade, while demand for homes has remained high since last year.

The lower number of available homes has curbed sales and made the buying process more complicated for some would-be homeowners, said economist David Clark of Marquette University.

“When you’ve got an environment that is this tight, unfortunately you probably have a lot of disappointed buyers, who either get properties bought out from under them or just can’t find that right match,” he said.

The Wisconsin Realtors Association report found median home prices rose to $180,000 in July, up 5.9 percent from prices a year ago.

Clark said the inventory issue has driven the Wisconsin real estate market all year, and is likely to do so going forward.

“At the end of the year I think we’re going to have a relatively consistent story, that sales were on par with last year, but prices are quite a bit higher,” he said. “And they’re quite a bit higher because you have too many buyers chasing too few homes.”