Local home sales enjoy summer resurgence
By Ed Nadolski
Editor in Chief
Joe Busch doesn’t need monthly statistics to tell him the local real estate market is improving.
“It’s so much nicer going into work knowing everybody is smiling and making a good living,” said Busch, broker and president of Bear Realty’s Burlington office.
While Busch can see the gains the market has made on the faces of his colleagues, the numbers compiled by the Wisconsin Realtors Association put the bright white teeth behind those smiles.
Home sales in the three-county area for the first six months of the year are up more than 20 percent over the same period in 2012.
Sales in Kenosha, Racine, and Walworth counties are well ahead of the state’s average increase (11.4 percent) for the same period, according to the realtor’s association.
Busch said it’s great to see this area of the state leading the way, since it has been at the other end of the steadily improving market for much of the recovery.
He attributes the impressive gains here to a recent decrease in the number of foreclosed properties and continued improvement in consumer confidence.
“I think people are more comfortable with the market overall,” he said.
Throughout much of the past two years the slow recovery has been driven by sales of existing homes at the lower end of the price spectrum – including foreclosure properties.
That has been slowly changing, Busch said, noting there was a recent $1.5 million sale of a home on Browns Lake in Burlington and vacant lots – some costing as low as $20,000 – have started to move, too.
“We’re seeing it all across the board,” he said. “But it’s the existing home sales that are really driving the market.”
While some analysts feared the recent increase in interest rates would negatively impact the market, Busch said he believes rates are still relatively low enough to sustain the recovery.
“If rates stay below even 6 percent, I don’t think we’ll see people get scared off,” he said.
But, he also noted that some people might be spurred to act now for fear that rates may go higher.
The bottom line, according to Busch?
“It’s been a great summer. I hope it continues.”
Here’s a look at home sale statistics compiled by the Wisconsin Realtors Association for the area:
Kenosha County – 218 homes were sold in June compared to 171 sold in June of 2012. So far, 1,117 homes have been sold this year, which is a 22 percent improvement over the 833 sold in the first six months of 2012. The median sale price for June was $128,500 and stands at $113,000 for the first six months of the year. The median sale price for all of 2012 was $110,000.
Racine County – 216 homes were sold in June compared to 204 sold in June of 2012. So far, 1,170 homes have been sold in 2013, which is a 24 percent improvement over the 941 homes sold during the first six months of 2012. The median sale price in June was $118,950 in June and stands at $107,000 for the year, up $1,000 from 2012.
Walworth County – 144 homes were sold in June compared to 140 sold in June of 2012. So far, 731 homes have been sold in 2013, which is a 21 percent improvement over the 605 homes sold in the first six months of 2012. The median sale price for June was $174,000 and stands at $155,000 for the first six months of 2013. That’s up $5,000 from the median price for all of 2012.
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