Wisconsin’s housing market performed far better than expected in June, with existing home sales down just 4.5% compared to that same month in 2019, and median prices rose 3.6% to $222,000 over the same 12-month period, according to the most recent analysis of the state housing market by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association (WRA).
On a year-to-date basis, home sales for the first half of 2020 were 4.9% lower than the first six months of 2019, and median prices were up 7.6% to $209,900.
“This is better than we expected given the COVID-induced slide in sales we saw last month,” said WRA Chairman Steve Beers. Sales slid sharply in May, dropping 24.3% compared to May 2019, so being down just 4.5% is a big improvement.
Beers qualified the comparison by noting that sales in June last year were actually somewhat weak, dropping 7.7% from June 2018. “It’s important to remember that we’re comparing closed sales with the same month a year earlier, so the weak performance in June 2019 makes this past month’s drop in sales smaller,” he said.