Greater Milwaukee Association of REALTORS®
Press Release

April Home Sales Down 4.1%

Market Highlights: Sales Strong Despite Dip, Listings Down, REALTORS® Believe Prices Will Increase

By - May 10th, 2017 03:02 pm
Homes. Photo by Carl Baehr.

Homes. Photo by Carl Baehr.

April 10, 2017 – Home sales were down 4.1% in April in the Metropolitan Milwaukee market.

This decline in unit sales is directly related to the decrease in available properties for sale.  Low inventory has plagued the market since mid-2015.

Beginning in September 2014, there have been 27 months of positive sales.  April was one of 5 months in negative territory.  Washington County was the only county with positive sales, coming in 5.4% ahead of April 2016.

Still, the real estate market is performing well from a historical perspective.  The 1,777 sales in April were 10.4% ahead of 2015’s level.

County April Sales %

Change

2016 2017
Milwaukee 1,035 979 -5.4%
Waukesha 540 514 -4.8%
Washington 167 176 5.4%
Ozaukee 111 108 -2.7%
4 County Area 1,853 1,777 -4.1%

Listings Down

Listings for April were down 1.9% regionally.  Yet, remarkably, listings were up in three of the 4 metropolitan counties.  Nonetheless, since June of 2015 there have only been 5 months of positive listing growth (18 negative, including April).

County April Listings %

Change

2016 2017
Milwaukee 1540 1582 2.7%
Waukesha 837 711 -15.1%
Washington 256 274 7%
Ozaukee 174 187 7.5%
4 County Area 2,807 2,752 -1.9%

Inventory Very Tight

The seasonally adjusted inventory level for April was 4.7 months, an increase from March’s 4.4 month level.  The seasonally adjusted level was 5.9 months in April 2016.

Subtracting the 2,859 listings with an active offer from current listings presents an effective inventory level of 2.4 months, slightly higher than March’s 2.3 month level.  A year ago, the same calculation showed April’s inventory level at 3.1 months.

Inventory

Inventory

GMAR Member Survey

The GMAR surveyed members earlier this week (May 8 – 10) about the market and 66% do not see any signs of inventory increasing during the rest of 2017.  72% of survey respondents would like to see more listings under $300,000.

44% of members surveyed believe prices will increase between 4% and 6% this year over 2016.  20% see a 1% – 3% increase, while 24% believe prices will go up 7% – 9%.

Where to go

Buyers should seek the counsel of a REALTOR® in determining their best housing options, and sellers need a REALTORS® expert advice in making correct marketing decisions with their home.

The Greater Milwaukee Association of REALTORS® is a 4,000-member strong professional organization dedicated to providing information, services and products to “help REALTORS® help their clients” buy and sell real estate.  Data for this report was collected by Metro MLS, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of the GMAR.

* Sales and Listing figures differ between the “Monthly Stats” and “4th qtr” (or year-end) because the collection of “Monthly Stats” ends on the 10th of each month; whereas the “4th qtr” is a continuous tally to 12/31.  For example, if a sale occurred on July 29th, but the agent does not record the sale until August 11th, that sale would not be included in the July sales figures (or any subsequent month’s total) but would be added to the annual total sales figure in the “4th qtr” total.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.

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