A little little good news, and a little bad news in statewide home sales for 2010. Home sales were down in Wisconsin for 2010 – but prices remained steady. “Home sales (PDF) were actually off about 7.5% versus ’09, which is actually compared to national standards not too bad,” said Bill Malkasian, President of the Wisconsin Realtors Association. “But the good news is that the prices have remained stable.” Those prices bottomed out at $141,000, only about one percent off from the previous year. “Fifty-six percent of the sales basically took place in about the first half of the year because of the tax credit. and then the rest of the year was a little slow. I think 2011 is going to be a little better, not dramatically,” Malkasian said, adding that he expects the market for second homes and new construction to rebound this year. The average inventory at years end was at 13.8 months. Malkasian notes that the numbers represent a statewide average, with a lot of variation in local real estate markets around Wisconsin. “The numbers are very local. This is merely a 40,000 foot shot for the state, but each market is different.”
