Milwaukee

The public has finally grown used to talk of a real estate market in recovery. With prices going up, people are starting to wonder if a new bubble is forming. Most metropolitan markets are somewhere between recovery and normalization. Supply is still tight but improving in some areas. What housing really needs is further job and wage growth to support healthy demand levels fueled by new household formations.

New Listings in the Milwaukee region increased 5.3 percent to 2,776. Pending Sales were down 34.4 percent to 1,111. Inventory levels grew 7.3 percent to 8,047 units.

Prices softened somewhat. The Median Sales Price decreased 2.7 percent to $164,950. Days on Market was down 16.7 percent to 86 days. Absorption rates slowed as Months Supply of Inventory was up 9.3 percent to 6.3 months.

April's job growth was above expectations. Growth is likely to accelerate through the year, but the types of jobs being created is also important. We're producing more low-wage jobs as opposed to high-wage jobs. That's not conducive to increasing the number of potential buyers. It also means less disposable income sloshing around. Even so, some local markets may pause but are unlikely to falter thanks to suppressed supply levels and an improving sales mix. Don't confuse temporarily weak demand indicators for stagnation.

All data for the market reports comes from the Multiple Listing Service, Inc. and is powered by 10K Research and Marketing. You can follow this link: http://www.metromls.com/support/Market_Updates/index.html or visit www.metromls.com.

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