Housing market struggling in much of US, but red-hot in Milwaukee!

Nationwide, the housing boom of the 2020s appears to be over, and is in danger of teetering downward.

Notes from the Fed meeting in July highlight discussion between committee members on slow economic growth in the first half of the year, due in part to a decline in residential investment. Members reflected on weakening housing demand, more homes for sale and falling house prices….

According to the National Association of Realtors, existing-home sales ticked up just 0.8% year over year in July, but inventory (15.4% increase) and months’ worth of supply (4.0 to 4.6) rose significantly from a year earlier — signals that the market is slackening rather than roaring back.

The rate of new-home sales, seasonally adjusted, fell year over year in July, per the Census Bureau. The months’ supply rate also increased to 9.2 months, compared to 7.9 months last year.

That same Census Bureau report showed prices of new homes have declined in a majority of months over the last year, including a 5.9% year-over-year decline in July.

But one state that’s not seeing a decline in their housing markets is Wisconsin. In fact, recent articles say our largest metro area is the hottest housing market in America!

The typical U.S. home waited for a buyer for 60 days, a full week longer compared with a year ago, according to the August 2025 Housing Market Trends report from Realtor.com®.

Yet in Milwaukee the median for-sale property remained unsold for just 32 days—roughly half the national days-on-market figure for August, making it the fastest-selling metro among the top 50…. In August, the median listing price in Milwaukee inched up just 0.2% from a year ago to $399,900, well below the national median of $429,990, which was flat year over year.

Meanwhile, Brew City’s inventory of for-sale homes edged up 6% compared with August 2024—but new listings saw a 3.4% year-over-year dip.

On top of that, Milwaukee had the lowest months of supply in June, at just 2.7, putting it squarely in the seller’s market column.

And data from the Wisconsin Realtors’ Association backs up that southeastern Wisconsin is still seeing steady and significant growth in housing prices.

And that’s with the number of housing sales being no different than we saw at this time in 2024, and more than 30% below the amount of sales that were happening at this time in 2021, which underscores the still-tight inventory of homes in the 414 and 262 area codes.

More-expensive Dane County has had a boom trend that resembles the higher-priced markets in other parts of the country. And like other parts of the country, the price boom seems to be leveling off in the Madison area.

So maybe Dane County's plateauing is a sign of what might happen in the smoking Milwaukee market in the next year. And these still-strong housing trends in Wisconsin make me wonder how bad the economy must seem in parts of the South and West that are seeing significant declines in prices.