Northwoods’ News

     Julie Winter-Paez– Broker   Coldwell Banker Mulleady REALTORS, May 9, 2012

_{This is our monthly look at volume of homes sold in Oneida and Vilas Counties.  Some good news here is that we sold 75 homes in April of 2012.  This compares with just 49 homes in 2011 and 63 homes in April of 2010.  So, 2012 year to date we have sold 239 homes.  In 2011, we sold 178 homes in this same period of time.  That is a difference of 61 homes or an increase of 25%.  In 2010, 183 homes were sold so we have a nice positive trend going.}

_{A bit less positive news is that this increase in unit sales has not meant that we have seen increases in prices.  We are still seeing very low offers and what is selling are homes that are priced well below market value.  We still have some bank owned homes and we have a lot of sellers who have been on the market for over 500 days and are accepting very low offers.  Once we get through this inventory and assuming that demand remains the same, we can expect market forces to start to drive prices upward.  Overall, the trend is positive and that is a good thing.}

_{One thing that I will point out is that some markets are moving better than others.  The $300K and under market is moving better than the $300K to $750K market.  The mid-market remains tough as so many of these buyers were utilizing home equity loans and lines of credit on their primary residences to purchase second homes.  The equity on their primary residences is largely gone and so is their ability to buy a second home.}

_{Markets like Phoenix are now very active because investors now make up 45% of the buyers.  It really is an opportune time to be buying real estate.}