Some good news for a change!  We reached over 100 units sold for the first time in 2009 and the most units since last October.  109 units sold in October vs. 122 last October.  It's a start! 

 The above are home unit sales by month for the past 24 months.  Some bad news is that 2009 unit sales have been below 2008 unit sales for the past 12 months.  One month, April, almost surpassed the previous year 76 vs. 77 units.  The largest gap was between December 2008 vs. December 2007 where 72 units were sold in 2008 vs. 179 units were sold in 2007.

One thing becomes quite clear on this chart is the beginning of the real estate slowdown.  If you throw out February, March and April of 2008, the rest of the year was relatively strong.  Those three months are historically slow periods in Northwoods real estate.  October 2008 was the final strong month for Northwoods real estate with sales of 122 homes.    Since that time, we have had only one month with sales above 80 units (August 2009 saw 84 units sold).

What will the future hold?  The uptick in volume is certainly welcome news for sellers and REALTORS.  The $8000 stimulus has helped in other parts of Wisconsin and the nation but it has not made a significant impact on Northwoods real estate.  I remain optimistic that 2010 will surpass 2009 and that Octobers number, while not outstanding, are a step in the right direction.  The one common element that the Buyers are looking for are "deals".