New Listings ‘Mushroom’ From Baltimore To Milwaukee
A pair of reports provide an update on the housing bubble. “More than 3,200 metro Milwaukee homes sprouted “for sale” signs last month, over three times the number reported sold, a Friday industry report shows. That new inventory was 43% higher than January 2005 and 66% higher than January 2004, Metro MLS figures show. The Wauwatosa market-tracking firm reported 936 January sales, a 10.2% slide from 1,042 a year earlier.”
“This massive influx of sellers ‘could be people testing the market’ for changed conditions, Metro MLS President Tammy Maddente said.”
“‘The next 30 days are going to tell us a lot. If the sales pace picks up, we’ll be fine,’ she said. If sales don’t pick up, Maddente said, buyers will dictate terms this year, a financially painful switch for sellers.”
“New listings mushroomed throughout its southeast Wisconsin reporting region. In the four-county metro area, 3,201 dwellings hit the market, compared to 2,241 a year earlier and 1,934 two years earlier. Waukesha and Ozaukee counties had the biggest surges - 47% and 58%, respectively. Milwaukee County wasn’t far behind, with 44.5%, while Washington County had a 15.7% gain.”
“South of metro Milwaukee, new listings were up 41% in Racine County, and 30.1% in Kenosha County. To the southwest, Walworth County’s new listings rose 34.3%. Sheboygan County, north of Ozaukee, had a 38% gain.”
“Sales were down everywhere except Sheboygan County. County year-over-year dips: Milwaukee, 9.8%; Waukesha, 5.1%; Ozaukee, 32.9%; Washington, 9.5%; Racine, 10.2%; Kenosha, 4.1%; and Walworth, 8.6%.”
From the Baltimore Sun. “With each passing month, there is mounting evidence of a mild if uneven slowdown in the regional real estate market, with the number of homes on the market rising steadily as prices and sales slip further from their summer peaks. Prices in the region peaked in July, and January’s average sales price of $291,337 was 6.4 percent below that level.”
“About 2 1/2 times as many homes were listed for sale in the region last month as a year earlier, and sales ran 15 percent or more behind year-earlier levels in most areas. The number of homes listed in the Baltimore area more than doubled from January last year, jumping from 4,114 houses to more than 10,600.”
“‘When inventory goes up and the sales turnover goes down, that’s an early indication of an adjustment in the market of some magnitude,’ (economist) Brian A. Bethune said. ‘The question after that is how much of a price adjustment is there going to be after the froth comes off.’”
“Sales in Carroll County fell more than 38 percent in January from the same month in 2005, and prices year over year were up 5.6 percent, significantly less than any other part of the region. Melvina Brown, an agent in Ellicott City and past president of the Howard County Association of Realtors, agrees that adjustments in pricing are inevitable. ‘Because we have more inventory, prices are going to be more realistic than they were last year,’ she said.”
Now THOSE people have a problem. Who in their right mind would want to buy overpriced property in Milwaukee or Baltimore? Santa Monica, maybe. Seattle, maybe. Naples, maybe. Santa Barbara, maybe. Milwaukee? LOL!
My parents are still in WI and my father has told me the small builders are already starting to go under and that there are literally thousands of empty new spec houses sitting between milwaukee and greenbay.
txchic57 -
Milwaukee, in particular Wauwatosa is a nice place to live.. Well, not worth $400k for a home, but if you could get one for $250k…. Not too many tech jobs is the problem.
Much, much nicer than Texas…
this guy is on his third reduction. he has now dropped his price $151,000.
the sfr on lucerne at $599,000. signs of things to come?
http://www.ziprealty.com/buy_a_home/logged_in/search/results/detailed.jsp?msg=&page=1&cKey=3dxrq7tc
btw, that little lucerne house is in a great neighborhood, other than the street is a little busy.
Milwaukee, Baltimore, Twin Cities (http://www.startribune.com/535/story/240253.html) I detect a trend.
I agree. Better than TX. I can think of a few places worse than TX to live. Uhhhh . . . . . Yuma, Arizona. Jersey City, New Jersey (my birthplace, ha!), perhaps Fargo, North Dakota, Kearney, Nebraska or Talkeetna, Alaska? No, I take that back, at least in Talkeetna, you can the the beautiful mountains.
Here are stats for the market in Laguna Beach as of 2/3/06. It looks like high-end resort areas are not going to be immune as some posters have suggested. There have been 13 new SFR listing from 2/3/06 till today. There have been 3 new Condo listings. There are now a total of 223 properties listed in Laguna Beach. 65 properties have come on the market in the last month. 36 in the last 2 weeks. Could get interesting!!!
Laguna Beach Homes and Laguna Beach Real Estate Market Conditions.
MARKET UPDATE
SINGLE FAMILY HOMES:
Today there are 164 active Single Family Home listings on the market.
Average days on market. 90
The lowest active price is $449,876. High being $26,500,000.
Out of the 164 active listings, 47 have shown price reductions since their original list date. Or About 29%
20 “Single Family Homes” have “sold” in the last 30 days.
The Average sale price was $2,051,350 or $761.00 Per Square Foot.
18 Of the 20 “Single Family Homes” sold, had price reductions. Or about 90%
Average days to sell the property 69
Month’s worth of inventory, if no more homes come onto the market. 8.2
CONDOMINIUMS:
In the “Condo” market, there are 17 Active properties
Average days on the market. 133
The lowest active price is $570,000. High being $3,900,000.
Out of the 17 active listings, 4 have shown price reductions since their original list date. Or about 24%
3 “Condos” have “sold” in the last 30 days.
The average sale price for a “Condo” was $1,291,333 or $454.00 Per Square Foot.
1 Of the 3 properties sold, had price reductions. Or about 33%
Average days to sell. 56
Month’s worth of inventory, if no more homes come onto the market. 5.7
Personally, I would not sell our family house just to “test the market”. It would be an interesting survey to ask the current sellers in a given county their top three reasons for listing their home.