This chart shows the sales figures as gatherd by the Greater Milwaukee and Southeastern Wisconsin MLS.
I looked up the sales figures on the MLS for the past couple of years. These figures are for all of southeastern Wisconsin, all properties.
4532 Sales all of MLS from Jan 1 to Apr 2009.
6031 Sales all of MLS from Jan 1 to Apr 2008.
8078 Sales all of MLS from Jan 1 to Apr 2007
8506 Sales all of MLS from Jan 1 to Apr 2006.
8564 Sales all of MLS from Jan 1 to Apr 2005.
8197 Sales all of MLS from Jan 1 to Apr 2004
These figures show we are at about 53% of past years.
The home sales market is rebounding in the Milwaukee area. January and February of 2009 have seen a high volume of sales in foreclosures. The first week of April has seen an increase in sales in suburban homes under $200,000. This has been achieved with little or no government involvement.
Past years have shown, prices will increase as new listings enter the market in early spring with moderate or high sales figures. The Greater Milwaukee area has experienced price increases averaging 8% for five consecutive years ranging from 2002 to 2007. From 2007 to 2008 Wisconsin has shown a 1% increase in overall pricing. Many sellers are waiting for the first sign of a turn around in prices. When this happens, many sellers will list their homes at prices above market value. If sales continue to increase, so will prices. Sellers will be like a person coming up out of a pool of water. After holding their breath for such a long time they will be trying to gather as much in one breath as they can. Any good news in home sales will bring out sellers, marketing properties at higher prices with the mind set of, "if I sell at this price, great, if not, I'll take it off the market."
With higher priced homes entering the market, other sellers may be less willing to negotiate.
Prices can vary drastically from neighborhood to neighborhood. A quick and easy indicator can be found in the use of an MLS Portal. This is an easy to use web based program provided by the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors through the local MLS. Information on homes in the areas you are interested in are automatically send to you via e-mail. The Portal keeps a collection of these listings so they can be viewed at any time. Status changes are also recorded on this Portal. When a listing receives an accepted offer a little yellow tag is attached to the listing. The status also changes when the listing is sold, expires or is withdrawn.
In the past few weeks we have seen accepted offers in numbers not seen over the past 18 months of the economic turn down. Lower list prices and interest rates have created a large number of appealing bargains on the market.
If you do not have the use of an MLS Portal, let me know and I can set one up for you. This will be the easiest way for you to keep an eye on the market where you are most interested. This will give you the ability to witness local trends.
If you are looking at foreclosures you may have searched for them on the Internet. Chances are you have seen pictures of homes, looking like mansions at unbelievable prices. Remember the old saying, "if it looks too good to be true...."
Many of these sites use trade mark names but have no affiliation with these nationally known businesses. What does that tell you about these companies? Do you want to know the truth about foreclosed properties? Lenders owning these properties are doing all they can to market these properties so they can sell them as quickly as possible. All foreclosed properties are listed with a local Real Estate Broker. Information about foreclosed properties is free!!!
Answering ads on Internet sites offering foreclosures can be risky, you never know who is on the other end and where they are located. The National Association of Realtors sends notices of the scams on the Internet. It is easy for scam artists to copy information from any ad and paste it into their web site. To avoid these scams follow these general rules.
Do not contact any company that does not clearly state the name of the company, address and phone number. BY LAW ALL LICENSED REAL ESTATES AGENTS MUST CLEARLY STATE THEIR NAME, THE NAME OF THE BROKER AND THEIR PHONE NUMBER. If you do not see this information CLEARLY stated, you are not viewing an ad or web site for a licensed Real Estate Agent.
Contact only local agents since these are the only agents that will be able to assist you. They can send you listings and set up appointments to see the properties. Provide your local agent information on the type of property you are looking for and your preferred location. They will provide you information about listings in your area for free.
Never pay a fee!!! I have never heard of a licensed Real Estate Agent charging a fee to show a property.
Foreclosed properties never provide complete information on a property, so you have to call an agent, set an appointments and view properties. You will have the option to hire a state licensed inspector after an accepted offer is signed. A state licensed inspector will provide you with a list of the property defects. After receiving this list you may have a choice to go on with the purchase or cancel the contract. You will have to pay for an inspection. You local Real Estate Agent may be able to provide you with a list of local inspectors.
I wanted to make one thing perfectly clear. You can obtain a free list of foreclosed properties from any local Real Estate Agent. This information is public and FREE. If anyone wants to charge for this information, do not reply, delete the e-mail, close the Internet window or hang up the phone. Don't even consider sharing any information if there is a chance of a fee being charged.
One of the best solutions to help solve the economic dilemma may be to extend this $8000 first time home buyer credit to all home buyers for the year 2009. Or offer this credit on a limited basis.
Imagine if you would, taking only 5 billion out of the pockets of the banks, that have shown they are good at loosing money. Instead this money should go into the hands of tax payers. This 5 billion would give an $8000 credit to 6,250,000 home buyers. This should go to all home buyers in 2009, not only first time buyers. This is what we need to really turn the economy around. Housing sales would go up, the stock market would follow. Businesses seeing relief would be hiring instead of firing.
There are approximately 4.5 million homes for sale nation wide. 5 billion dollars would cover about 13% of the available homes on the market. It would take about 30 billion to cover every home sold in an average year. A good portion of the money is already allocated to first time home buyers. It would not take an additional 30 billion to initiate this program. Wouldn't a tax credit given directly to all home buyers in 2009 stimulate the economy?
Write your representatives with your ideas.
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
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