Milwaukee area real estate sales were up drastically over July of last year. While sales being up is good news, we must point out that last July was an unusual month that suffered greatly because of the end of last year’s home buyer tax credit. Metro-wide, 2077 residential properties sold in July, 2011 compared with 1480 in 2010 and 2461 in July of 2009.
In Racine county, this year was the best July in 2 years, same with Ozaukee County. Washington, Milwaukee and Waukesha County all had significant increases in July sales, yet not enough to top 2009. Source Metro MLS.
| County | Sold July 2009 | Sold July 2010 | Sold July 2011 | July 09 vs July 11 | July 10 vs July 11 |
| Racine | 161 | 111 | 179 | 11.2% | 61.3% |
| Ozaukee | 98 | 59 | 111 | 13.3% | 88.1% |
| Washington | 139 | 78 | 101 | -27.3 | 29.5% |
| Milwaukee | 910 | 484 | 696 | -23.5% | 42.8% |
| Waukesha | 472 | 264 | 381 | -19.3% | 44.3% |
Low prices and low mortgage rates are tempting especially for first time home buyers and investors – 62% of homes sold in July in the metro Milwaukee area were homes under $200,000. There has been a lot of investor activity, paying cash to avoid current financing hurdles. In addition, reports of good activity in the high end market shows people in the higher price ranges eyeing a huge opportunity to move up into the home of their dreams at prices they never thought possible. Contact your real estate agent to see if now could be the time for you to move up.
While sales last July were admittably easy to beat, the fact remains that they were and in a tough market, that is a step forward. Year to date, the number of sales is 8.8% off of last year in the metro Milwaukee area.
Thank you for reading the First Weber Wisconsin real estate & Wisconsin living blog for information about the real estate market in Metro Milwaukee. To search real estate for sale in Metro Milwaukee, please see firstweber.com. You can also search sold property data to see what houses around yours are selling for. Give our sold property search a try!