Milwaukee Area Housing Recovery?

Date: 7/28/09
Source: WRA REALTOR® Newswire Weekly – Agent Edition – 7/31/09
By: Molly Newman

Milwaukee-area REALTORS® report that an uptick in housing sales locally during June was mainly due to a federal first-time home buyer tax credit introduced earlier in the year. While home sales are up, Milwaukee brokers remain hesitant to declare a recovery is now in progress regarding the housing market. The June Metro MLS statistics showed a combined 3.6 percent increase in all residential home sales in nine area counties — Milwaukee, Washington, Ozaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha, Sheboygan, Manitowoc and Walworth counties — compared to the previous June. In fact, June showed the first positive all-county residential sales growth this year. Ozaukee County fared the best, experiencing 63.9 percent sales growth. Greater Milwaukee Association of REALTORS® President Mike Ruzicka adds that decreasing sales rates are less drastic than the sales decreases of as much as 40 percent seen in several counties earlier in the year.