Limited Housing Supply Continues To Drive Up Wisconsin Home Prices

Wisconsin home sales have lagged behind last year’s for a third straight month.

The latest report from the Wisconsin Realtors Association found just over 8,000 sales of existing homes in May. That’s down 5 percent from the same time last year.

The declining number of homes on the market coupled with continued strong demand pushed home prices up 8 percent last month, to a median of $188,000.

Metropolitan areas continue to see the biggest issues around inventory, with rural areas more balanced. Economist David Clark of Marquette University says urban real estate markets are now so tight that even the furthest suburbs are starting to see home prices go up.

“The good deal that you got from shifting out to a little longer commute? That’s drying up a little bit,” Clark said.

Clark said he expects price increases will slow somewhat as more homes come on the market.

But, he said, that won’t happen right away.

“The improvement is going to take some time. Maybe we’ll see some modest improvement within a year’s time. I suspect, though, the rest of this year is going to look an awful lot like the first half of the year looked like.”

Sales for the first five months of 2018 are about even with last year’s record sales because of a better-than-expected start to the year.