Milwaukee

Most local markets continue to recover from a soft patch earlier this year. The macro trend is still positive; the micro trend involves more moderate pinching up and down the month-to-month timeline. This is not uncommon in a balanced market, but it's been so long since we've seen one that we're watching it with perhaps too much trepidation. Metrics to watch include inventory and prices, but also days on market, months' supply and percent of list price received at sale. Declines in pending and closed sales activity may reflect strong decreases at lower price points and may not indicate softening demand.

New Listings in the Milwaukee region decreased 3.1 percent to 2,169. Pending Sales were down 31.4 percent to 1,052. Inventory levels rose 5.5 percent to 8,630 units.

Prices continued to gain traction. The Median Sales Price increased 6.9 percent to $193,000. Days on Market was down 5.6 percent to 76 days. Buyers felt empowered as Months Supply of Inventory was up 11.4 percent to 6.7 months.

Sustained job growth, lower mortgage rates and a slow rise in the number of homes for sale appear to have unleashed at least some pent-up demand. Since housing demand relies heavily on an economy churning out good jobs, it's encouraging to see second quarter GDP growth revised upwards to a 4.2 percent annualized rate and stronger-than-expected job growth in recent months. Further improvements are still needed by way of wage growth and consumer confidence but recovery continues.

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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