First Weber Group REALTORS®: Wisconsin Real Estate

Some interesting points can be found in The National Association of REALTORS 2008 Profile of Home Buyers & Sellers report. 10,053 home buyers and sellers were surveryed and here are some of the results:

- First Time Buyers have risen in market share and plan to own their homes longer.  This is not surprising considering the affordability we are now seeing, plus the special tax advantages available to first time home buyers.  It has been said that first time home buyers drive the market and it is an optimal time to get into that first home.  Do it before December 2009 to take advantage of the currentcredit, which does NOT require repayment.

-   First time buyers say they plan to spend 10 years in their home, up from 7 years in 2007.

-   First time buyers chose a fixed rate loan 92% of the time.

-   Only 1% of sellers chose their agent based on commission.

-   81% of buyers and 84% of sellers used a real estate agent.

-   6% of homes purchased were in foreclosure versus 1% in 2007

-   Environmentallly friendly features were important to 90% of buyers.

-   Buyers search a median of 10 weeks and viewed 10 homes. (If you are a first time home buyer - how many homes have you looked at so far?)

-   Nearly 90% see their home as a good investment. Almost 50% see it as a wiser ivmentment than the stock market.

-   52% of sellers were moving to a larger home.  22% were downsizing

-   81% of sellers used a full service broker

-   9% of seller chose a limited service broker

-   48% of buyers used open houses in their search

-   87% of buyers used the internet in their search 

-   34% of buyers say they learned about the property they purchase through a real estate agent, 32% the internet, 15% from yard signs, 7% from a friend, 7% from a builder, 3% from a print or newspaper ad, 2% from the seller, 1% from a home book or magazine.

...That's just a small selection of the amazing amount of data gathered nationwide about the buyer and seller of 2008.

Before you know it 2009 results will be in. It will be interesting to see the comparison. Hopefully the uptick in first time buyers will continue and move this market.  Those buyers will be happy they bought when they did!

Statistics from The Metro Milwaukee MLS show some good things happening, and as has been typical in real estate for a while now, some bad.  A quick overview of the metro market as of January 2009 follows:

The number of new listings is down. That is good news considering there is still a large inventory of homes for sale.

Pending and closed sales are down, but they always are in January. They are down a  little more than usual.

The number of days on market is equal to what it was in January of 2007. Overall, Days on Market for 2008 was an average of 101 versus 91 in 2007 and 82 in 2006.

The Housing affordability index is way up - to 159.  This means the median household income is 159% of what is needed to purchase a median priced home. This is obviously good news for buyers- coupled with the new home buyer tax credit that does not require repayment.

The seasonality of real estate rarely changes as you look from year to year.  January is always the low spot of the year for both new listings and sales. Then in February, new listings jump dramatically and sales come up.  May and June are usually the top of the market.  What happens in May and June should be starting now and we have heard from many offices and agents that things have picked up at open houses.  Here's hoping for a good year, one that will be off the charts - in a good way!  We can hope!

READER QUESTION:

"I would like to see a chart showing a 10 year history of average days on the market for Southeastern Wisconsin."

FIRST WEBER ANSWER:

We do have a chart that shows the history over the past 6 years, compliments of the Metro MLS.  Hope this helps you.

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