Is Wausau real estate finally plateauing?

The price climb continues, but the numbers of sales are finally starting to slow, data shows; and national sources are calling real estate a bubble

Only a couple of months after I’d bought my first home in 2016, I’d had a chat with my realtor who happens to live next door. I asked how the real estate business had been going.

She was completely sold out of homes, she told me.

That year, 2016, was the year that average home prices of those sold started rising, and they haven’t really stopped since. The numbers are similar: houses sold every month nearly always beat the previous year. Even the pandemic seemingly couldn’t seem to stave off demand.

Until last year. Although prices of the average home sold have doubled since 2010, with 2021 setting another record, the numbers of sales finally fell. (In fairness, they did dip a bit in 2019 but the numbers rose again in 2020, despite the pandemic.)

Even has home prices rose, demand for those homes seemed to continue to outpace the supply. But that changed last year. Is the market about to change?

That’s interesting because statewide, the numbers have increased, though the increase is less than typical. The numbers of homes sold in 2019 was 82,692; that increased to 89,328 in 2020. In 2021 90,169 homes were sold.

What hasn’t slowed is the price of the median home in Wisconsin. It was $160,000 in 2016; that changed to $240,000 in 2021, a 50% increase.

Marathon County saw a similar increase in median price:

I’ve seen that in the value of my own home, if Zillow can be believed. I bought my house for under $80,000 in 2016. Today it’s valued at roughly $141,000. At that rate, it would soon be worth double.

In Marathon County, the numbers of homes sold have started to level off:

As realtors have told The Wausonian, the main issue is still inventory, and so far new housing hasn’t made much of a dent.

But is real estate about to hit a bubble? And how will that play out in Wausau?