So how is the market? Is anything even selling around Madison?

"Is anything actually selling?" That's a question I heard from a recent customer. "I've heard from other Realtors that the only thing selling is under $250,000 because of the home buyer credit. What about $300,000 and up? Are any of those homes even selling?"

This comment got me thinking a little bit because I think it resonates with something that people ask me often. "so how's the market?" In an effort to explain this question, I'm planning to explore what properties have sold in the past two weeks in Dane County.

According to the South Central Wisconsin Multiple Listing database, there were 229 homes sold in the past two weeks ranging from $45,000 for a fixer upper on the east side of Madison to $925,000 for a beautiful home on Lake Mendota off University Ave. Out of these 229, there were 170 that were priced at $250,000 or below. Clearly, the $8,000 first time home buyer tax credit is having an impact, since 74% are in a price range where most first time home buyers land.

Another area of interest, might be to look at properties that sell in Madison versus outside of Madison (Middleton, Sun Prairie, etc.). Out of the 229 sales, there were 117 in the City of Madison, while 112 were outside of Madison. The two most popular suburb's (in terms of most sales) during this time period was Sun Prairie with 18 and Fitchburg with 12 sales.

Next I looked at what is the most popular style of home: ranch, bungalow, colonial, tudor, tri-level, bi-level, victorian, contemporary, cape cod, bungalow, etc. The overwhelming majority of homes sold were ranch style homes, registering 82 of the 229. Recording the fewest sales were victorian style at only two. This strikes me as somewhat odd, because I have spoken with a number of people that tell me, "I really like older homes with lots of character." In most cases, I would consider an old victorian home to have these characteristics. Yet, in terms of actual sales, these are clearly in the minority. Perhaps there's a market for newer victorian homes with lots of character?

The last area that came to my attention was to look at homes sold in various neighborhoods. Since Madison Magazine recently put together an article about "Great Neighborhoods", I thought it would be interesting to see how the actual sales line up with some of the "Great Neighborhoods in Madison." The majority of homes sold listed "N/A" or "none" as a subdivision with 40 falling in this category, meaning there was no easily identifiable neighborhood. However, of homes that did list the subdivision the winner was Ridgewood with five homes. Then there was a four-way tie between Westwynde, University Heights, Sunset Village, and Orchard Ridge, all recording four homes from each area.

To answer the question, "Is anything actually selling?", the obvious answer is yes. Homes are selling throughout Dane County in a variety of neighborhoods and price ranges. If you are considering buying a home there's approximately 2761 homes to choose from and in the next two weeks, there could be roughly 229 sales (if the next two weeks are similar to the last two weeks). Based on these numbers (229/2761), from a home seller's perspective, there's roughly an 8% chance of selling a single family home in the next two weeks.




Disclaimer - some of these numbers may change slightly as the listing database is updated. Sometimes various real estate brokers do not input their "sold" information right away.

Is Madison like Denver?

I recently took a trip to Denver with a good friend of mine. In fact, he was moving out there from Milwaukee to take a different job. As many people who know me would agree, that I'm quick to jump on an opportunity for a vacation to Colorado. I love the mountains and the many outdoor activities in Colorado. Aside from my own love of the mountains, I was struck by some of the similarities of Downtown Madison and Downtown Denver. Now I understand, as of 2008 estimates, Denver has an estimated 598,707 people and Madison only has about 231,916. But if you look closely there are some similarities.

For example, my friend moved to an area that has a number of newer high rise condos and apartments, called Riverfront Park area with buildings like the Manhatten, and The Glass House. This reminds me of an area along West Washington ave in Madison with Capitol West, Metropolitan Place, or the Loraine. This downtown culture is targeted toward people who like to live in an urban environment where you can walk to a variety of activities. In fact, one comment I heard from Joe Alexander (President of Alexander Company and Developer of Capitol West), "we have a number of buyers that come from larger cities like Chicago." Though Madison is certainly not a New York or Chicago, there are some aspects of Madison that resemble a larger city.

Some other areas that struck me as similarities in Denver and Madison is the close proximity to numerous cultural activities, a large convention center, a pedestrian mall, access to public transit, and a good network of bike paths. There's the Overture Center or Kohl Center, similar to the Colorado Convention Center or Pepsi Center. State Street is full of unique shops, while the 16th street mall entices shoppers. Denver has a vast network of public transit with buses and trains, while Madison has Metro.

Then there's the obvious differences of climate and landscape. Madison will never have the mountains and the average of 300 sunny days a year, just like Denver will never have a city built around Lakes and the Midwest climate. But similarly, in Denver you can take a trip out to the wilderness in the mountains, and in Madison you can take a ride up to Devil's Lake for some natural beauty.

Lifestyle choices are very personal. People move all over the world in search of the, "best place to live". I recall talking to some people just the other day about, "wanting to retire in the best climate in America." I think they were not referring to the harsh Wisconsin winters, but instead looking to Florida or Arizona. Maybe the "best" place to live is in Denver, Madison, New York, Orlando or Phoenix. That's for you to decide. If you're familiar with Downtown Denver and like it, then you might like Downtown Madison as well. I think they have quite a bit in common.