Wisconsin Home Sales See Sharp Drop In March

Wisconsin saw a sharp drop in home sales in March.

The latest report from the Wisconsin Realtors Association, released Monday, showed 5,235 sales of existing homes in March. That’s down from the 6,094 sales reported in the same month last year, a 14.1 percent decrease.

Economist David Clark of Marquette University said it was likely the extreme weather Wisconsin saw for much of late winter played a role in the lower sales figures.

“People who are still looking for houses simply said, ‘Look, we’re not going to look in February,’” he said. “‘The whole polar vortex thing is going to keep us out of the market during that time period.’ That doesn’t mean they’ve abandoned any hopes of buying a home, they’ve simply delayed it.”

Clark said if the weather was the primary reason for the decrease, the delayed sales activity should give a boost to housing numbers over the next few months.

“On the other hand,” he said, “if it played a relatively minor role, then that may suggest that these tight inventories have really just started to hinder demand in an important and significant way.”

The limited supply and continued solid demand for homes pushed median prices up 6.3 percent in March to $185,000.

Housing supply fell again in March, with new listings trailing last year’s figures by 15.3 percent and overall listings down 14 percent from the previous March.