June was another strong month for real estate in the Madison, Wisconsin area. Here's our quick summary of how the Dane County single family home market performed last month. 

Madison area home prices increased 4% year-over-year and 5% year-to-date. 

The price per square foot reached a new high in the month of June. 

New MLS listings were lower by 14% during the month and 14% year-to-date. 

A lack of fresh supply is benefiting home sellers in 2020. June listings were at their lowest level since 2011. 

This graph shows new listing activity by week for the first 6 months of the year. MLS listings have been trending lower since the end of March. 

Despite low inventory, buyers were very active in the month of June. 

The number

If you've been having a hard time finding your dream home, you may want to consider building your next house. There are plenty of builders in the Madison area who would love to work with you, and we can help you choose the one who's the right fit for your tastes and budget. We can also help you find and purchase the lot or land that your new dream home will be built on.

To learn more about the home-building process, please reach out to one of our real estate professionals. We'll help you understand how the process works and lay out a plan for building a beautiful home. 

If you'd like to learn more about locations with new construction properties in the Madison area, check out our blog for our list of emerging neighborhoods. Or, just reach out to

The home inspection is an important step in the process of buying and selling a home. It can also seem like a stressful event for buyers and sellers alike. Read below for tips from Al Gindt of BPG Inspections on having a smooth inspection. Al also shares how inspections have changed during the pandemic to keep both buyers and sellers safe.

What can buyers and sellers expect from an inspection?

A home inspection's first priority is to determine if there are any safety-related issues with a property. The second priority is to educate buyers on their new investment. “I try to emphasize to buyers that we’re not looking for specific issues as much as we're looking for what is going on in this home,” said Al. “Our goal with the inspection is to

The Madison area condo market continues to be a great market for sellers as we head into the summer sales season. Here's our newest update on the Dane County condo market with all of the latest trends updated through the month of May. 

Madison area condo prices are at all-time highs.

The condo price per square foot jumped to $160 in May, which was up 4% from last year. 

Condos are selling quickly.

The average days on market in May was just 36 days, which was a record low for the Dane County condo market. 

New condo listings continue to enter the market at a slow pace.

Dane County condo listings decreased by 37% in April and 19% in May. 

A high percentage of the listings are under contract and closing soon. 

As of June

Even though there's so much turbulence in the world around us, many Madison area home sellers are experiencing a tremendous amount of success in this year's low inventory market. Here's our quick snapshot of the Dane County single family home market - updated through May, 2020.

Madison area home prices are at record highs.

The May price per square foot increased by 4% year-over-year and 5% year-to-date.

Marketing times are near historic lows.

The average of 28 days on market was the second lowest on record for the month of May.

New MLS listings are entering the market at a slow pace. 

New listings were down 33% in May and were lower by 15% year-to-date.

Months of supply are low.

Inventory is low, and especially so for

You may be thinking it would be great to buy a new home. Perhaps you could use more space. Or, maybe it’s time to downsize from a two-story to a ranch-style home or condo. The catch is, you have to sell your current home first! Our team of full-time real estate agents helps clients with this scenario all the time. In this article, we'll share a few tips to consider that can help make the process less stressful. Coordination and some additional planning can go a long way to helping you sell and buy at the same time.

Tip 1: Focus on your home-selling plans first. It may be tempting to start looking for your dream home before you have prepared your home for sale. However, you risk finding the perfect home and being unable to write an offer because

Relocating across the country isn’t easy, but Jenn and her husband were committed to finding a place in Madison for their retirement. They worked with Shelley Lazzareschi and Tammy Steiner to find the perfect home, completing the entire home buying process virtually. They are moved in and loving their new place!

Jenn and her husband were planning to move out of California for their retirement. They decided they wanted to move somewhere in the midwest, and embarked on a year-long search. Then, Madison became their top destination.

“My daughter was accepted into a summer program at UW-Madison, and we fell in love with the area when we came to visit her,” said Jenn.

Jenn searched Google for “Madison Realtors” and really liked the Mad City Dream

During this COVID-19 market many Madison area home and condo buyers are placing a huge amount of trust in their agent to help them find their dream home, negotiate their offer, and close on their purchase. As you go through the process of selecting your own buyer agent, here are a few questions about trust that will help you hire the right professional. 

7 questions about trust

1) In this low inventory market, do you trust your buyer agent to be focused on all available sources of properties? MLS listings, coming soon listings, for sale by owner listings, and unlisted properties?

2) In this fast-moving market, do you trust your buyer agent has the grit you need to make your move happen? Does he or she have the work ethic, persistence, and

Here's a quick look at the Madison area real estate market for the month of May. This preliminary market info is based on our snapshot taken on May 26th. We'll report on the full month of May once all of the final numbers are available in the month of June. As you can see from the updates below, inventory is much lower this year, and as a result many homes are selling very quickly and for high prices. 

New MLS listings continue to enter the market at a slow pace. 

New single family home listings have been trending much lower since the end of March. Low supply has created a very competitive market for buyers this spring. 

Properties priced under $350,000 are very hot. 

As of May 26th, well over 50% of the single family homes priced under

"Yesterday, from the window overlooking the woods, I saw two Baltimore orioles and many other birds. We are very happy with this new home."

These are the words from our client, Mary, who just purchased her dream condo. It's a nice condo with an open floor plan and a main level primary suite. Most important to Mary, it's close to nature and located within a peaceful, wooded setting. It's exactly the type of condo she was looking for. 

How we found Mary's dream condo

When we began our search, there weren't any properties listed for sale within Mary's favorite condo community (which is a pretty common scenario in our low inventory market). So we decided to send out a few letters. We sent out 22 letters to the owners in Mary's preferred