June home sales down, prices up in metro Milwaukee

A short supply of homes for sale in the four-county metro Milwaukee area led to a decline in June sales and helped push prices higher.

The Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors said Wednesday there were closings on 2,369 homes in June, down 8.5 percent from 2,590 in June of 2017.

At the same time, the average prices of existing homes rose in all four counties in the first half of 2018, with the biggest percentage gain — 14.5 percent — in Washington County.

Through the first six months of this year, sales were flat overall in Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties, rising only 0.3 percent to 10,247 from 10,220 in the January-through-June span a year ago.

“The only thing holding back a higher volume of sales is the availability of homes for sale,” Mikek Ruzicka, president of the local Realtors organization, said in his monthly report. “And, there doesn’t appear to be any way to remediate that issue any time soon.”

Ruzicka said the supply of homes isn’t close to keeping up with demand, and new-home construction is lackluster. He said foreclosures, which provided thousands of homes after the recession, now are relatively rare.

Ruzicka also said people aren’t moving for a variety of reasons. Among them: They don’t have a new place to move into, they don’t feel the value of their home has totally recovered from the housing crisis, or they have made improvements to their home and want to enjoy them.

Many homes in good school districts that are in “move-in” condition and priced at less than $300,000 are receiving multiple offers, the Realtors organization said. In the four-county market, homes costing less than $300,000 made up 68 percent of all sales in June.

The lack of supply has put upward pressure on prices. Through June this year, the average home price was up 5 percent in Milwaukee County, to $184,903 from $175,731 at the same time a year earlier.

Other average price gains: Ozaukee County, 11.9 percent, to $354,452 from $316,843; Washington County, 14.5 percent, to $261,931 from $228,794; and Waukesha County, 3 percent, to $327,182 from $317,570.

With the exception of Franklin, the average price rose from a year ago in the 10 metro communities that recorded the most sales in the first half of 2018:

❚ Milwaukee, $144,407 from $134,642, 7.3 percent. ❚ Waukesha, $233,893 from $223,149, 4.8 percent. ❚ West Allis, $146,166 from $136,282, 7.3 percent. ❚ Wauwatosa, $259,799 from $243,843, 6.5 percent.

❚ Brookfield, $358,843 from $347,373, 3.3 percent. ❚ West Bend, $224,699 from $195,975, 14.7 percent.

❚ Menomonee Falls, $324,307 from $307,222, 5.6 percent.

❚ Greenfield, $186,302 from $183,899, 1.3 percent. ❚ Franklin, $260,293 from $262,269, down 0.8 percent.

❚ Oconomowoc, $364,406 from $326,233, 11.7 percent.