Home sales across Wisconsin continued to drop last month, along with average sale prices. Compared to May of 2010, sales of existing homes fell 22.6-percent and the statewide median sale price dropped 5.2-percent to just under $138,000.
Wisconsin Realtors Association President Bill Malkasian says it’s a reflection of the fact that the home buyer’s tax credit is no longer available, after it expired last spring. Sales numbers from the second half of 2010 and the first five months of the year have all be down dramatically.
The credit pushed over half of last year’s home sales into just the first five months of 2010.
Malkasian says the numbers are expected to start improving this summer and could actually be better than they were last year for June and July. He says normal patterns, at least in how the real estate market works, could be starting to return.
Even as sales start to recover though, Malkasian says the housing market will be a different place because the basic factors have changed. Those include the ability of buyers to get a mortgage and the appraisal process.
Right now, Malkasian says buyers have plenty of reasons to be out looking as the market starts to come back. He says there are many affordable homes available right now and sellers willing to negotiate.