DANE COUNTY MARKET
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Dane County was a seller’s market in 2020—here’s what to expect from 2021.
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Today I’ll provide a quick recap of our Dane County real estate market for last December and 2020 as a whole and a preview of what’s to come for the rest of 2021.
The pandemic caused a huge slowdown in home sales and home purchases, but as everyone sheltered in place, many realized that they wanted homes with more space. This led to a surge of buyers seeking bigger homes (or ones that were more conducive to working or schooling from home).
Last December, the year-over-year median price rose 9.7% from $290,000 to $318,250, and the number of sales rose 19% from 568 to 676. Normally the winter months are our slow period, and December is usually the quietest month of all in terms of accepted offers. However, in this case, demand was high due to low inventory.
Here in Madison, as of the recording of this video, there have been 3,826 home sales over the past 12 months, and we currently have 329 active listings. 181 of those have an accepted offer, leaving 148 listings that are available without an accepted offer. This translates to roughly 0.46 months of inventory, which puts us in a severe seller’s market. Homes are moving very rapidly and for big money. In spite of the pandemic (or because of it), closed sales in Dane County throughout 2020 rose 8.3% compared to 2019.
What about interest rates? As 2020 ended, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 2.67%, which is unheard of. This has helped buyer affordability, as it’s made money inexpensive to borrow. This should continue to push sales throughout 2021. Some pundits predict that interest rates will see a moderate rise this year, but the Federal Reserve is saying they’re committed to keeping rates low. It’s hard to know what to expect from them, but I believe rates will hover around 3%. They may creep into the mid-to-high 3s, but even that is an extremely affordable rate.
Despite the pandemic (or because of it), closed sales in Dane County throughout 2020 rose 8.3% compared to 2019.
For the rest of 2021, sales are expected to increase slightly compared to 2020, and I think the trend of buyers looking to upsize will continue. Now that companies have seen that people can successfully work from home, we may continue to see buyers move further and further away from where their company is located. Traditionally home prices tend to increase by an average of 4% per year, but we think this year they may increase at a rate of 5% to 6% or even higher.
As always, if you have questions about our Dane County market or are thinking of buying or selling a home soon, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m happy to help.
The holiday season has officially arrived.
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Friends and Clients,
Happy holidays to you!
The holiday season has officially arrived. We hope you enjoy this wonderful time of year and make some fantastic memories.
We wanted to take a moment to thank you for your continued support. We love helping people make their real estate dreams come true, so thank you for working with us and supporting our business.
This may be a busy time of year, but we are always here to help you and answer any questions you may have. Give us a call or reply to this email and we’d love to help out.
In case we don’t hear from you until 2021, have a happy New Year!
This is our latest superb listing, and you have to see it for yourself!
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Today we’re showing you our latest listing at 4881 Enchanted Valley Road in Middleton. This contemporary, 4-bedroom home sits upon 12.5 acres and includes a 110 by 70 ft. horse barn. The house has been completely restored and remodeled by Dream House/Dream Kitchen. I’m going to let the video above speak for itself.
Watch the tour of this beautiful property to see the picturesque grounds, elegant interior, great features, and more. For more pictures, floor plan, and a 3D tour, visit enchantedvalleyhome.com.
If you have any questions about this home or real estate in general, please reach out to me directly at (608) 212-5743. I would love to help you.
Here’s what the experts say about the election’s impact on the market.
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We know 2020 has been one heck of a year with the pandemic, the resulting economic slowdown, lockdowns, and more. However, Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said, “On an aggregated level, the housing economy remains rock solid despite the shock and awe of the pandemic.” The next large 2020 event that could impact real estate is the upcoming presidential election, and people are concerned.
First of all, in the early days of the health crisis, people thought it was going to have a huge effect on foreclosures—that we would see many of them come onto the market. However, economists are saying something different. Jeff Ostrowski, senior mortgage reporter at Bankrate, says it well: “The COVID-19 pandemic will lead to a rise in mortgage defaults and foreclosures. But as the housing market muscles through this economic downturn, it looks as if foreclosures will form a trickle rather than a flood, housing experts say.”
This is due in part to the government allowing forbearance. Right now, the economy is slowly getting better, the housing market’s been strong all along, and low mortgage rates are converting prospective buyers into active ones. Interest rates are currently driving the market by giving buyers more purchasing power, and we’re seeing very strong demand. Consumer confidence and sentiment have been increasing in both the economy and housing market.
‘The housing economy remains rock solid despite the shock and awe of the pandemic.’
According to Ali Wolf, chief economist for Meyers Research, “The year after a presidential election is the best of the four-year cycle. This suggests that demand for new housing is not lost because of election uncertainty, rather it gets pushed out to the following year.” Research going all the way back to 1963 proves that presidential elections don’t have a massive impact on the housing market, so you don’t need to be overly concerned about that.
If you need a new place to live, let’s go find it. If you’re renting a house, you’re throwing money away; let’s go get you into a great home. Still, buyers are being cautious, so sellers need to take that into consideration and not overprice their properties; pricing is always key. In our market, we’re still low on inventory but high on demand.
If you have any questions about buying or selling now or in the near future, feel free to reach out to me via phone or email. I would love to help you.
Here are 10 things you need to think about when preparing your property for the winter.
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If you’re a homeowner, there are certain tasks you’ll want to accomplish before winter arrives. Here’s a checklist of 10 ways to prepare your home for the cold season:
1. Clean your gutters. You don’t want leaves and other detritus to settle in your gutters, blocking the flow of water and creating ice dams when the weather gets cold.
2. Unscrew your outdoor hoses once you’re done using them. Make sure they’re drained and put away before the frost comes. A hose attached to an outdoor spigot can freeze and cause catastrophic damage to your house.
3. Adjust your air returns. If you have cold air returns with a high and low setting, you should adjust those appropriately for the season. You are going to want to open the lower registers and close the top ones to keep the hot air in and draw the cold out.
4. Service your furnace. Have your furnace serviced, or at a minimum, change out the air filter.
5. Service your fireplace. Your fireplace should be serviced and checked annually to make sure it’s working properly.
6. Change ceiling fan direction. In the winter, change the direction of your ceiling fan to pull the warm air upwards. Studies have shown that alone can reduce your heating cost by about 10%.
7. Blow the water out of your in-ground sprinkler system before it freezes and gets wrecked.
8. Put away outdoor furniture.
9. Put in stakes for your driveway. This will help you see where the edges are once the snow has fallen
10. Buy a new snow shovel. If your shovel(s) were completely used up last year, purchase a new one for the coming season.
BONUS 11. Check Your Carbon Monoxide Detectors. If you have gas appliances, make sure you have a carbon monoxide detector and that you have new batteries put in for the season.
If you have any questions about prepping your home for the winter or anything else to do with real estate, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be glad to help you.
Here’s what you must do to prepare your home for our market.
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So you’ve decided to put your home on the market—what happens next? Here are the steps you need to take that will lead to a quick and lucrative sale:
First, schedule a consultation with a Realtor (preferably us!). This will help clarify your goals and give your Realtor a chance to find out more about your situation. After that, have a market analysis done. Part of this requires giving your Realtor a tour of your home so they can learn more about it, answer your questions, and compare it to your competition. In this COVID-19 era, you can always do a virtual tour via Zoom or FaceTime.
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Our supply of inventory in the Madison metro area is extremely low (one to 1.5 months), so you already have an advantage as a seller.
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Once that’s completed, it’s time to prepare your home so that it appeals to the most buyers. This means getting a staging consultation. If you work with our team, we’ll hire a professional stager to visit your house and plan how to make it appeal to the most buyers while using the least amount of resources. We’ll make it look its best for listing photos and 3D tours (which we pay for). During these times, your first showings will be virtual anyway, so that’s where your home needs to shine.
At this point, you may be wondering: Is now even a good time to sell? Absolutely! Our supply of inventory in the Madison metro area is extremely low (one to 1.5 months), so you already have an advantage as a seller. You can dictate the terms of your contract and be in a great negotiating position.
If you’d like to start your home selling journey, get in touch with me today and my team and I will get to work on maximizing your sale. If you have any other real estate questions, feel free to reach out to me as well. I’m here to help.
Please excuse the quality of this video. We recommend that you watch it at 1.25x or 1.5x speed for better results.
If you’re a buyer in our Madison market, you need a buyer’s consultation.
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With inventory levels as low as they are in our current market, a buyer consultation is all the more important if you’re thinking of purchasing a home.
We have less than a one-month supply of homes in Madison, which puts us in a seller’s market. You need to move quickly and decisively to find the right home and make a winning offer.
This is where the buyer consultation comes in. It gives your buyer’s agent an opportunity to learn what’s truly important to you and separate your must-haves from what you’re willing to compromise on. For example, is having a fenced-in yard important or would you be willing to build one later? Do you really need a 4-car garage or can you settle for a 3-car garage?
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If you’re ready to schedule a consultation with my team, give us a call.
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In a market like this, there are three things buyers are most willing to compromise on:
During your consultation, you’ll also learn what you need to do to be successful in a seller’s market and the importance of a pre-approval and working with the right lender. After the consultation is done, your agent will be ready to find a home you’ll be happy with now and for a long time afterward.
If you’re ready to schedule a consultation with my team, give us a call. In the meantime, compile a list of your must-haves so we’ll know what’s important to you. We’ll ask plenty of questions to help you figure it out. After all, our job is to help you find the right house and negotiate the best terms in the right time frame.
As always, if you have questions about this or any real estate topic, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’m happy to help.
The latest numbers are in and I’m excited to share them with you.
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As the market is opening back up and restrictions are being eased, I wanted to give you a quick update on what we’re seeing out there right now in real estate.
Most notably, our number of listings this year is way down from where it was at this time last year. From March 15 through May 29 of 2019, we had 1,330 new listings on the market. This year during the same period, we’ve had only 923. That’s had an effect on the final sale price and supply of homes.
The number of closings from March 15 through May 29 of 2019 was 963. This year, they dropped to 887. That’s not much of a drop, but it has led to a big increase in the median sale price, which rose from $283,000 to $315,000. The median list price is up from $318,276 to $338,663.
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We were on track to see an increase in listings before the pandemic hit.
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With about the same number of buyers looking at homes and fewer listings for them to purchase, the increased competition has led to a bigger rise in prices.
As we were heading into this crisis, we actually had 12% more listings in the first couple of months of this year compared to last year. That has certainly slowed down in the months since, and it has led to better numbers for sellers.
There has been an artificial bump in days on market due to the process being a little bit longer. It’s mainly because we’re taking the crisis seriously and making sure all of our buyers and sellers buy and sell safely.
Here are a few more additional stats for the Dane County real estate market in May (as of the recording of this video):
If you are thinking of buying, there’s more competition, but there are also very low interest rates. It’s a great time to refinance, too.
If you have any questions for me about what’s going on, don’t hesitate to reach out via phone or email. I look forward to hearing from you.
Today I’ll discuss how we’re keeping clients safe in our real estate process.
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In light of the pandemic, people are frequently asking us if they can still buy or sell houses.
Fortunately, the answer is yes—we’ve just had to change our process to comply with certain public health measures.
If you’re a buyer, your buyer’s agent can take you on a virtual walk-through of a home you’re interested in, using Skype, Zoom, FaceTime, or similar apps to show off the house’s features in real-time, answer any questions you have, and highlight points of interest. We can even use the tools in our arsenal to give you a 3D tour that will show you the floor plan, room dimensions, and allow you to measure out spaces for your furniture.
If you’re interested in going to see the home in person, there are measures we can take to mitigate the risk to you and the sellers. We ask that you wear masks and disposable gloves when you enter the house, and we’ll designate someone to open doors and drawers so you can get a closer look. We’ll also note surfaces that are touched so that we can wipe them down and sanitize them once the showing is finished.
Even with those measures, is now the best time to buy?
I can’t tell the future with certainty, so I can’t say for sure whether or not it’s best for your situation to buy a home right now. I can, however, share that interest rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage are at 3%, which is very, very low. If you already own a house and don’t plan to move, now is a fantastic time to consider refinancing your home.
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Real estate will continue to be bought and sold, but we’ll do everything we can to help keep those involved in the transaction safe and healthy.
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One very real concern at this time is someone losing their job or getting furloughed between having their offer accepted and the closing table. The Wisconsin Realtors Association created a document that offers further protections in cases such as if the title company or real estate brokerage closes or you can’t close your transaction due to the pandemic.
One of our local title companies, Homestead Title, has been offering drive-up signings where the buyer and seller pull up in separate cars and a title officer will come outside to give you the papers you’ll need to sign and answer any of your questions. It’s worked out very smoothly as an added measure to keep everyone safe. Electronic notaries are also something that we anticipate will soon become a reality for us.
In the end, real estate will continue to be bought and sold, but we’ll do everything we can to help keep those involved in the transaction safe and healthy. If you have any questions or would like more details on any of these safety measures, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.
