By Jean M. Stefaniak, Real Estate Broker
Hello and happy back to school Wauwatosa!
Is the Wauwatosa Real Estate market slowing down? This question is asked of me several times a week and my answer is always, “No, not quite yet.” To analyze the Wauwatosa real estate market you need to really look at what the data is showing us.
Let’s first look at the absorption rate. Currently, from January 1st, 2022 through August 23rd as I’m writing this article, 478 single family residential properties have successfully sold and closed. There are 95 single family residential homes listed for sale, of which 62 of them have accepted offers. This leaves us with only 33 homes available according to the Multiple Listing Service data.
The data is showing us that we still have a lack of sufficient inventory for the number of buyers still wanting to purchase in our great community.
Due to the pandemic, the last 24 months have been a true market anomaly, and challenges from the low amount of inventory still exist. So, when someone asks if the market is slow — does slow mean we don’t have 42 showings and 16 offers on a particular property as opposed to 10 showings and 4 offers? Multiple offers coming in on any property is still an indicator of a really, really amazing real estate market for sellers. Prices are still rising.
Other super common questions are, will the spiking interest rates must be disrupting the market. Currently, 30-year conventional residential mortgage rates are about 5.5%. Historically, rates between 5 and 6% on a 30-year mortgage are very typical rates. We’ve been absolutely blessed with 3.0% 30-year fixed rates for about a decade. News articles that say rates are “spiking” seems like a bit of an amplification to me.
There’s no question that some things are costing more, and this will legitimately impact a buyers decision as to how much they want to spend but, our seller market remains very strong.
This current changing market is very different from the previous plunge of 2008. At that time non-qualified buyers were mortgaging more than they could truly afford at adjustable rates with no money down. The mortgages we are seeing today are owner occupants with 10-20 percent down payments on conventional mortgages. We don’t see that type of bubble today.
Wauwatosa remains to be in high demand regardless of what the changing market is doing. We say location, location, location in real estate for a reason. We are located within 10 short minutes to downtown Milwaukee, Lake Michigan, the Milwaukee Bucks, and the Brewers.
We are neighbors to the Milwaukee Regional Medical Complex that encompasses Children’s Hospital, Froedtert Hospital, the Medical College of Wisconsin, Curative Care Network, Behavioral Health and Versiti Blood Center. This ALWAYS brings us new people wanting to move into our great community. Our cherry on the top is our beautiful parkway, park system, pool, bike path and Village.
The consistency in real estate is that it’s constantly changing. It never stays the same. It’s fascinating to watch the market changes. I can’t wait to see what next year brings!
Thinking of selling? Call me or contact a Wisconsin licensed professional real estate broker. 
Happy Fall Tosa!
Jean
