Wisconsin’s existing home sales hit a new record for the month of July, which increased prices by double digits, according to the most recent monthly analysis of the state housing market by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA).
Sales of existing homes rose 7.6% in July relative to that same month in 2019, and the median price rose to $226,400, which is 10.4% higher than July 2019. On a year-to-date basis, sales are now only slightly lower than this time last year, with sales in the first seven months of 2020 just 1.9% below the same period of 2019, and prices are up 8.4% to $213,000.
“July was a remarkably robust month for home sales, given what we’ve been through the past four months,” said WRA Chairman Steve Beers. A total of 9,649 homes were sold in July, the most homes sold during a July since the WRA re-benchmarked its data-collection methods in 2005. The previous record was July 2019, when 8,969 home sales closed.
Over the last 12 months, home sales were up 18.6% in the North region, and they rose 11.1% and 11.7% in the Central and West regions, respectively. “This makes sense because rural areas have higher inventory levels,” said Beers. Statewide, rural counties had 6.4 months of available supply in July, compared to just 3.4 months of supply in the metropolitan counties.
“We had record home sales because we had record-low mortgage rates,” said WRA President & CEO Michael Theo. This was the fourth straight month where the 30-year fixed mortgage rate dipped into record-low territory, falling to 3.02% in July. By comparison, mortgage rates were at 3.77% just a year ago, so they have fallen three quarters of a percent.