Milwuakee Views

The life of a stand-by flier needs to be flexible. Only half of my plan for 2 weekends in Milwaukee worked out. I did get to Milwaukee last weekend but I could not get a seat out of Denver on this past Friday. I was to go to my cousin’s daughters wedding on Saturday the 18th and spend Sunday with my wife’s brother’s family on their boat on Lake Michigan near Chicago.

During my 1st weekend, on the 11th I got to go the Harley-Davidson museum, it’s like a trip to Mecca for an old Harley rider like me. Also, I did get to check out some of the Milwaukee real estate market in relation to our Denver market.

The cities are of similar size with populations at around 600,000. Denver ranked as the 24th largest city with Milwaukee at 26th. Denver’s metro area population is about 1,000,000 larger and raked at #21 while Milwaukee is at #37.

The sales info I received and reviewed for the last month in the City of Milwaukee was interesting. A full 85% of the sales were between $6,000 and $150,000, with only 3 sales between $200,000 and $240,000 and one at $310,000. Many neighborhoods looked much like Phoenix and Denver with For Sale signs everywhere. The local sentiment was that the market was going to stay “as-is” for a while.

The people here seem to take the market ups and downs more matter of fact-ly than in Phoenix, where the anxiety from the bust was prevalent. After years of losing jobs in the industrial and brewing biz, they seem to be more resigned to market cycles.

The local buzz regarding the possibility of Harley pulling the manufacturing plant from Milwaukee was a big topic. After I left, the company and the unions agreed on a plan to keep the jobs in town.

In comparing Denver to Milwaukee and Phoenix, I think Phoenix is still in a down trend and waiting to buy there will probably get you a better deal. Milwaukee will probably offer more deals in the future but probably not at a much lower rate than now.

Denver has been in the top percentile nationally of holding prices or slight increases and may be closer to the road out of this recent bubble explosion.

Go Denver!

We Suck Less?

I have in been in Phoenix three times in the past month and a half or so.

Although we are experiencing a less than exuberant real estate market, Phoenix really sucks.

Local buzz there is they are about to experience a double dip in real estate prices. After the median price hit a low of $119,000 in April of 2009, recently it has slowly risen to just above $130,000.

Pending sales show that the median is heading down and could get near the April 2009 low in Sept.
They have 43,000 on the market, up from 41,500 in June and up from 37,000 a year ago.

We have 33,000 homes and 8,400 condos on the market and our median sales price was $217,740 in June. This is up from $213,000 in May but still well below the June 2006 median of $247,569.

Over the next 2 weekends I am going to Milwaukee WI. I am curious to see how there market is compares to ours.

After the reviews of the Phoenix market, we may look beat up but you should see the other guys!!!