What are the hottest price points for Madison area real estate listings? We've taken a close look at the latest MLS statistics and there are 2 clear trends standing out in this year's market.

Madison single family home listings priced under $300,000 are super hot

Take a look at our snapshot below of the Madison single family home market. It shows properties priced under $300,000 have a very high percentage of listings with an accepted offer. Listings priced under $250,000 are especially hot, with over 60% of these properties currently under contract and scheduled to close soon.

What does this data mean for sellers and buyers in 2019? If you're selling a home for under $300,000 in the city of Madison, you have a great opportunity to leverage

Many of our Madison area sellers are concerned about proper etiquette when they open their door for showings. Our sellers want to be respectful of the buyers who are visiting their home, and they wonder if they should allow each buyer the opportunity to view their home privately, without any other buyers in the house. We get this question a lot, especially during the hot spring market, when buyers are out in droves. 

Should you allow for double-booked showings?

Our short answer to this question is "yes", you should allow for overlapping showings, and for two main reasons. The first reason is you'll expose your home to more buyers when you allow each buyer to tour your home at their requested time. Although it would be nice to grant each buyer a

Late last year we predicted the Dane County real estate market would be more balanced in 2019, based on the belief that interest rates would rise above 5%. In December, the market did cool as cautious buyers waited out a rocky stock market. The month of January was a different story, however. The stock market stabilized last month and mortgage rates moved lower rather than higher. Local home and condo buyers responded very favorably in January and are very active in the market right now.

Single family home buyers were very active in January

Single family home accepted offers increased in the month of January after decreasing by 19% the month before. As the graph below shows, accepted offers reached the 4th highest total ever for the month of

We’re excited to announce we’ve launched a new platform for our website, which makes the new Mad City Dream Homes easier to use and navigate. Here are a few of the new search features that are now available at MadCityDreamHomes.com.

Property search from any page

Now you can launch your Madison area property search from any page on our website. This search bar allows you to quickly launch a search based on the city, neighborhood, address, street, zip code, and MLS number.

The “more options” features gives you full access to all of our MLS search criteria.

Content search on a desktop computer

Our new “content search” feature makes it easy to locate the real estate guides, articles and blog posts that you’re looking for. If

Unfortunately, some sellers do misrepresent or "under-represent" property defects on their real estate condition report. And it happens more often than we'd like to see. Based on our experience, failures to disclose are most likely to happen with For Sale By Owner and Limited Service listings. 

One fairly common omission is a seller's failure to disclose previous water intrusions. We know this because some water problems can be easy to detect. Mildew, water stains, soft wood, and elevated moisture readings are all signs of previous problems. When a seller does fail to disclose a water issue, that's a tip-off to be on the look out for other issues, too. 

How to protect yourself from sellers who under-represent

One way you can protect yourself

Here's a quick look back at the December Dane County real estate market, for both single family homes and condos. Let's jump right into it...

Dane County Single Family Home Update - Dec 2018

New Dane County single family home listings were the lowest ever for the month of December. A total of 211 new listings entered the market, a decrease of 12% from the year before. 

A low influx of new listings is keeping the inventory of active listings low, too. As of January 11th, only 1.5 months of supply were available for sale on the open market. 

Last month, a total of 265 accepted offers were recorded in the MLS - a decrease of 17% from the 321 accepted offers recorded in December of 2017. 

This historical view of accepted offers

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) gets a lot of attention -- and deservedly so -- for the mid-century modern homes and buildings he's designed in the Madison area. But less than 8 years after he attended civil engineering classes at UW-Madison, so did another "Frank" who would also become a prominent 20th century architect in a much different style.

Perhaps best known for designing what is now the Governor's Mansion and several other Period Revival homes in Maple Bluff, Frank Morris Riley (1875-1949) helped shape the look and feel of many of Madison's premier neighborhoods, including University Heights, Nakoma, Shorewood Hills, and along Sherman Avenue and Wingra Park. He also designed the Brittingham House in the Highlands, which is now the official

You may have heard BMO Harris Bank recently eliminated all of its brick and mortar loan officers. BMO lenders, who once worked out of individual branches, now work out of a call center. Now all customer interactions with a loan officer take place online or over the phone. The face-to-face meeting has been eliminated at BMO.

BMO adopted this new customer service model because it costs less than the old model. It's also a response to evolving consumer preferences, which place a premium on speed and efficiency. Will BMO have a thriving mortgage business 5 years from now? We'll be watching to see how their new approach to service plays out. 

Our thoughts on face-to-face meetings

We understand why companies like BMO are eliminating the

For a little insight, check out our graph below, which shows the number of accepted offers during the first 11 months of 2018. As the numbers below show, buyer activity is strongest in March, April, and May. Year in and year out the best time to sell is late winter and early spring. If you're planning to sell in 2019, this means the time to start preparing for your sale is right now. 

How to prepare for your 2019 listing

Here are 4 steps you can take right now for a successful listing in 2019. 

1) Contact your favorite Mad City Dream Homes agent. Your agent will help you select the right price point, customize your marketing plan, and identify low-cost cosmetic updates that will improve your home’s value.

2) Schedule your professional

Thinking of buying a home or condo in the Madison area? We've got three online tools that will help you reach your goals. Learn how to research building permits, research schools, and discover local neighborhoods with these 3 handy tools. 

3 helpful tools for Madison area home buyers

City of Madison building permit database

Have you ever found yourself wondering whether or not a home improvement project was completed properly and up-to-code? The city of Madison has a database that allows you to view the permits pulled for any residential property in the city. When you have questions about an individual property, you can research its permit history by visiting this website:

https://elam.cityofmadison.com/CitizenAccess/

State of Wisconsin