Milwaukee and Waukesha Area Home Sales for Spring of 2009

The home sales market is rebounding in the Milwaukee area. January and February of 2009 have seen a high volume of sales in foreclosures. The first week of April has seen an increase in sales in suburban homes under $200,000. This has been achieved with little or no government involvement.

Past years have shown, prices will increase as new listings enter the market in early spring with moderate or high sales figures. The Greater Milwaukee area has experienced price increases averaging 8% for five consecutive years ranging from 2002 to 2007. From 2007 to 2008 Wisconsin has shown a 1% increase in overall pricing. Many sellers are waiting for the first sign of a turn around in prices. When this happens, many sellers will list their homes at prices above market value. If sales continue to increase, so will prices. Sellers will be like a person coming up out of a pool of water. After holding their breath for such a long time they will be trying to gather as much in one breath as they can. Any good news in home sales will bring out sellers, marketing properties at higher prices with the mind set of, "if I sell at this price, great, if not, I'll take it off the market."

With higher priced homes entering the market, other sellers may be less willing to negotiate.

Prices can vary drastically from neighborhood to neighborhood. A quick and easy indicator can be found in the use of an MLS Portal. This is an easy to use web based program provided by the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors through the local MLS. Information on homes in the areas you are interested in are automatically send to you via e-mail. The Portal keeps a collection of these listings so they can be viewed at any time. Status changes are also recorded on this Portal. When a listing receives an accepted offer a little yellow tag is attached to the listing. The status also changes when the listing is sold, expires or is withdrawn.

In the past few weeks we have seen accepted offers in numbers not seen over the past 18 months of the economic turn down. Lower list prices and interest rates have created a large number of appealing bargains on the market.

If you do not have the use of an MLS Portal, let me know and I can set one up for you. This will be the easiest way for you to keep an eye on the market where you are most interested. This will give you the ability to witness local trends.

For more information please feel free to contact Dennis Herman of Realty Executives 414-426-1784 or visit my Web Site at Ez1Realty.net