A cold winter may be putting a damper on home sales in Wisconsin. In the northern part of the state January sales were down about four percent, compared to the previous January…according to the Wisconsin Realtors Association. Statewide sales were down almost seven percent.
But Economist David Clark says the cold weather could result in a spring rebound.
“The flip side may be that if colder than normal weather is causing some people to sit on the sidelines in December, January and February, it may simply shift them into March, April and May.”
Clark says January is typically the slowest month for home sales, usually representing less than 5 percent of the year’s total sales. In the northern region there were about 330 homes sold in January.
Clark notes that while the housing market is tightening up in the state’s urban centers…rural areas often have more properties on the market.
“So the good news obviously, if you want to buy a home in some of these more rural, northern counties, there are certainly good opportunities, there’s plenty of inventory available. If you’re trying to buy a home in some of the cities around the state, things may be quite a bit tighter.”
Meanwhile the median price of homes in the northern region jumped more than 20 percent compared to last January. That far exceeds the median price gain statewide of just over three percent.
