Milwaukee

It won't be long before the housing recovery is simply referred to as housing. Institutional and cash buyers have effectively priced themselves out of the market. During the downturn, much inventory was purchased by these groups. Now that prices are rising, there's less incentive for these kinds of buyers, yet affordability for consumers remains attractive.

New Listings in the Milwaukee region increased 17.7 percent to 2,362. Pending Sales were down 17.6 percent to 1,187. Inventory levels shrank 8.6 percent to 8,515 units.

Prices got a lift. The Median Sales Price increased 7.4 percent to $184,750. Days on Market was down 24.1 percent to 77 days. Absorption rates improved as Months Supply of Inventory was down 16.6 percent to 6.6 months.

With mortgage rates slightly up but relatively low by historic standards, the Fed has indicated no change in monetary policy based on a moderately-paced economic expansion. Although the unemployment rate remains a factor to watch, the housing recovery continues to plug along, helping the greater economy with flourishing activity in sales and prices. Housing has made a positive contribution to real GDP growth for 11 consecutive quarters.

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.

Any questions, please call the Help Desk at 414.778.5450.

Or e-mail support@metromls.com. You may also follow our updates at http://twitter.com/metromls.