Milwaukee

We're halfway through the year and it seems our collective attention has shifted from monitoring price and sales gains to eagerly anticipating more new listing activity on the part of sellers. This shift is the result of an imbalance between strong demand for homes and constrained supply. In some markets, purchase agreements are being written up directly after a showing. Your experience and local market conditions may differ, but the market as a whole has summertime heat.

New Listings in the Milwaukee region increased 10.3 percent to 2,687. Pending Sales were down 18.9 percent to 1,287. Inventory levels shrank 12.4 percent to 8,396 units.

Prices turned higher. The Median Sales Price increased 7.4 percent to $175,000. Days on Market was down 20.7 percent to 86 days. Absorption rates improved as Months Supply of Inventory was down 19.7 percent to 6.7 months.

Interest rate risk is back in the headlines after Fed chief Ben Bernanke's latest testimony on Capitol Hill. The Federal Reserve Bank is considering decreasing its $85 billion a month bond asset purchases, which have been holding interest rates at or near historic lows. This is mostly the result of an improving jobs market, which is a good thing for real estate.

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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