Stable Prices and Mortgage Rates for Wisconsin Home Buyers

By Richard Barrington
Local Lender Columnist
Aug 6, 2007
At times over the past few years, it has seemed as though trying to get into the real estate market has been like trying to jump on a moving roller coaster. With fast-rising home prices and wildly fluctuating mortgage rates, the housing market has tended to change with dizzying speed. However, so far 2007 has brought some welcome stability to the Wisconsin housing market.

First Quarter Home Prices Steady in Wisconsin

Home prices in Wisconsin rose 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2007. As housing prices go, this represents virtually no movement at all -- indeed, 1.1 percent is less than the general rate of inflation was in the first quarter.

For bargain hunters waiting for the national housing slump to hit Wisconsin, any increase might have been a disappointment. Those bargain hunters can take solace in falling sales volume--existing home sales declined 6.5% in the first quarter of 2007, as compared with the first quarter of 2006. Ultimately, falling demand might signal some softness to come in housing prices. For now though, the market is about as flat as it can get.

Mortgage Rates Find a Rare Level of Calm

Mortgage rates have also been less manic than usual. At 6.37% as of late May, mortgage rates have ticked up a bit recently, but overall, they have fluctuated by less than 0.25% this year. This amount of calm is rare--mortgage rates have fluctuated by at least half a percent (and often many times more) during every year from 1973 on.

Smart home buying is largely about intelligent planning, and the benefit of a stable environment is that it makes planning that much easier.

Sources
Wisconsin State Journal
Freddie Mac

About the Author
Richard Barrington is a freelance writer and novelist who previously spent over twenty years as an investment industry executive.