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Most people would not consider inflation, but of course real estate is a hard asset and as we are devaluation the dollar with inflation more dollars are needed to buy the same asset. Net of inflation the value increases are smaller. But inflation also decreases the real value of your mortgage debt. People used to take out a 30 year loan to pay of $20,000 in the 1960s...

Cost of living in the US is much higher than in Europe, but you also make more money and taxes are lower. If you google cost of living there are several websites that will give you a detailed break down

Glad to hear! You are applying stock market thinking to the issue, let me offer a different perspective. What you see in home price increases is to a large extend is the devaluation of the US dollar. You have to bring more dollars to buy the same house than last year, which is basically the cost of land+labor+materials. Back in 1960 you could buy a nice brand new home for $21,000, today it's more like $600,000. You can google long-term home price charts for the US. But that's not even the main point: when you buy a house with a 30y fixed mortgage you lock in the monthly cost. Unlike rent, it is not going to change. If the value of the house would go down next year, it does not matter unless you wanted to sell it. There was no time in US history where home prices did not go up over a ten year period, including 2008. If you are renting a small house that will cost you probably $24,000 per year and you have nothing to show for. If you spend $24,000 on mortgage payments, you have at least paid a portion of that money into your own pocket, increased your net worth and gained some tax write offs. And over enough time the equity is very likely to increase. We have a housing shortage in Milwaukee, I do not see a good reason why sellers would start discounting their homes next year.. home prices are what's called "downward-sticky". People just don't sell. Would you go back to 1960 and buy a couple houses if you could or rather pay rent?

Not what it used to be. We get less snow, it's mostly brown grass, but it can still get pretty cold when we get a blast of cold arctic air in Jan or Feb. Milwaukee has several large medical complexes and we have a very low unemployment rate - you can google it

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I know that corner, but I don't think it came up in the video?

@@marcusbluedanubeproperties5964 I live in Milwaukee. Verbally threatened 2x last week all because of riding my bike and obeying traffics laws. My wife assaulted last May by another woman for asking if the involved woman would move her car so my wife could get to an appt. This is not a city to call home. This is my opinion.

Fair point. I was tempted to leave Bay View out, as it is technically not it's own municipality. But I try to make my videos for my audience and they will mention Bayview just like any other municipality they would consider, so now we got an orange in the apple cart. Riverwest comes to mind, but it is too small in volume to have accurate data. And then of course the downtown condo market..

Not easy, but worth it. Personally, fall is my favorite time to buy rental property, when the market starts to fade.. Have you found my investing in MKE channel yet?

Thanks. Trying to be OnPoint, that's our team name after all. Funny story: we had our for-sale-sign installers put the sign in the wrong yard just across the street. My seller was a good sport, sent me a picture and changed our name to Off-Point 😂

You make a good point, I can't argue with your logic 👍

I personally can see why he lumped them together. I’m from the Northshore area Mequon and live in Germantown. When I happen to be on the southern part of Milwaukee, I get the same impression for lack of a better word as the narrator does. I see Franklin, Greendale, Hales Corners, and Greenfield as western suburbs of Milwaukee. Oak Creek to me is different as I lump it in with South Milwaukee, St. Francis, Cudahy, and Bay View (even though it’s Milwaukee) as the South Shore. I think and assume that’s the angle the host was going with this. Mequon is huge and is apart of the Northshore and at the same time can be lumped with Germantown. Mequon is that big.

@@trooper40below thanks for sharing your perspective! What I start to understand is that on a local level everyone is very protective of their neighborhood. For someone moving to Milwaukee Shorewood and Whitefish Bay may seem quite similar and both are obviously part of the North Shore, but don't tell that anyone in those two communities, they will vividly disagree!

being homeless is terrible on so many more levels than not having a place to sleep. Fortunatley MKE is doing a pretty good job supporting people who are in this situation, which is why you don't see it as many as in other cities. I am right now in Seattle, but I have seen it in DC, LA, NYC, Denver and Phoenix come to mind. Getting a roof over your head and making it a "home" is the first goal. Buying and owning it eventually free and clear should be the second.

@@MarcusMKE finding someone a place to sleep is not helpful.. if you live in a homeless shelter or with someone else you are still homeless 🎯🎯 there’s enough space and resources for everyone to have their own home 🎯🎯

Not for single family homes, there are only very few. Condo market is at 101.7% list to sale and prices are up 7.8%

Oconomowoc is very hot, I don't think that surprises anyone. List to sale price is 102.6% and median sales price is up by 12.6%.

Congratulations! Oak Creek is a great community! The numbers are a bit inconsistent, both median and average sales prices are down 1.3% and 1.5% respectively YTD. What's interesting is that for sale inventory is basically half of what it was a year ago, which will probably start to drive up the sale to list ratio and also median sold prices.

I have heard that rumor too, but most SF are taxed around $3000 at a 200-250k property value. That does not seems in line with many of the other MKE County tax rates. Brown Deer for example is definitly higher. I own a property in WM since 2008 and always liked it. Not many sales, so list to sale ratio all over the map, but mostly over 100-105% - like West Allis. Currently only 2 listings thats it.

@MarcusMKE the problem with WM, BD, and SF is that they can't expand their city or village limits by annexation, which not much land to develop.

@@jfadrowski1 that is also MKE's issue, which is why we don't see much new construction inside the city. I hope that GrowingMKE will result in updates to the zoning code setting off a trend of new- and re-development.

@MarcusMKE I am also excited about it. Very ambitious of the city looking forward.

Thanks Alejandro, it's all in the data. If you have any particular questions, let me know. I also love debunking myths. With data :-)

I looked at Fox Point and we know it well, my wife used to teach there for almost 20 years. The sold to list ratio has steadily been declining over the last 12 months from about 104% to now 99%. Median sales price down 5.45% from 550k to 520k. But with only 65 houses sold this year, I am not sure if that data is representative. The median list price is up 24% so no wonder. But we only have 14 listings at the moment and a third of them is over 1.5M so you get a huge swing in these numbers. Fox Point is a VERY desirable area to live and a really good example why I exclude small markets - the data needs more "interpretation" beyond a simple number. Great question - thanks for asking!

I am actually not sure how i would answer that question. You probably have an opinion. Can we hear it?

Well, the winters are nice in SoCal! But if and when you want to talk more about moving send me an email m.auerbach@kw.com

From Milwaukee born and raised. Moved to Houston 11 years ago. Making plans on moving back within the next month

@@1WriterGaming.Official what are your main reasons for moving back? Family, job or weather?

@@MarcusMKE Weather and Job

@@1WriterGaming.Official makes sense, I hear that a lot. Family is next and clients who are visiting often tell me that people are so nice here, which never ceases to amaze me that they point it out, I guess you get used to it

I think rents are still too low to make it viable for agents to find apartments in MKE like I have seen this for example in NYC. But you are usually just fine looking on Zillow

Well done! And it will continue to go up in value while your payment will remain the same for 30 years until you own it free and clear!

Nope what?

Aww, wish I could help you. You need 3.5% down with FHA, we can look into WHEDA to cover the difference. So there are ways, but a word of caution here as well: owning a home also comes with expenses. You want to paint, or you need a new water heater. You can feel confident about those things when you are able to save up for a down payment. Renting for more than a year is about as financially smart as eating out every day - yes it keeps you flexible, but you have nothing to show for the money you spent. Most people spend at least 250k in rent before they buy their first home...

@@MarcusMKE I’m from California so my perception of real estate and down payments are warped. Here, a down payment can equal what some houses do in MKE. I think I can get 10-15k together for a down in about a year- would that be feasible for a decent house in MKE market? Thank you for all your insight!

Happy to hear that and welcome to MKE! And BTW - winter is not anymore what it used to be. Mostly just brown grass instead of snow.

Thank you! Your comments and likes really help the channel!

You are right, it does. Builders are mostly interested in keeping their business steady, builders flip between too much work and not enough, very hard to manage for them in cash flow and very hard on their crews: they can flex only 10-20% up or down in work hours. The Milwaukee metro area could easily absorb a housing stock growth of 5000 units per year, which would only be about 1%. In order to dig ourselves out of the (housing shortage) hole we are in, we could use probably 2% for the next 5 to 10 years. We are nowhere near that level, which keeps upward pressure on home prices. The other issues is zoning. We would need land zoned for smaller houses, closer together with city sewer and city water to build homes for under 400k, so they are affordable. If the zoning project Growing MKE (see video from a couple weeks ago) is successful, we might actually see the construction of townhomes in Milwaukee , which cost much less to build than a big single family on 3 acres and help create the walkable neighborhoods everyone loves..

But if they build 5 times more homes they would still make a lot more money, even on a smaller profit margin

@@marcusbluedanubeproperties5964 You're right. However this is the classic example of fast nickel VS's slow time. Over the long run they stand to make MILLIONS more on NOT putting up 2000 homes in a year. Belinski homes in my area are $550,000 and up. It would be impossible to to ask that much if they built 10:1.

@@MarcusMKE They should take all the money they want to spend on the new zoning project and make Milwaukee a safer city. This will make people want to actually live in the city and make builders want to invest time and resources building housing. Milwaukee (proper) is losing residents every single year and it's not because housing is unaffordable. It's because of all the crime and the ghettos spilling out into once nice neighborhoods. (glendale, tosa)

@@LookitsRiley Crime, poverty, MPS, reckless driving etc... many issues that really need to be worked on for the reasons you describe. But I don't think it is one or the other, we need to do both. Fortunately it does not cost much to fix zoning, just rules on paper. We do have quite a few MKE proper neighborhoods that are very high in demand, take Brewers Hill, Riverwest and of course Bay View, downtowner the lower East Side and the Thrid Ward as examples. So, not easy but possible for individual MKE neighborhoods to be desirable. The reason why Tosa is so popular is because it is doing well/better in all the issues listed above - plus it is a walkable neighborhood, which is a function of historic zoning. You can actually walk to a restaurant, have a few drinks and walk home without worry. Of course people like that!

Thank you!

Yes, we have a strong seasonal pattern in Milwaukee. I have made several videos on the topic tp explain details, but in a nut shell everyone wants to buy a house in spring and very few people around Thanksgiving - lower demand makes for more days on market and ultimately lower offers. You can see this very clear when you look at the average list to sale price ratio. At the moment almost 103% and in November we were at 98%

@@marcusbluedanubeproperties5964 which video, can you link me? We are planning a move to Milwaukee in the next 1-2 years and your channel is great info. You are one of the most analytical realtors I have come across! Great work!!

Yes! There is so much to consider, it takes a lot to gain broad support for any major change! I have a lot of respect for the team, dealing with the public I can only imagine the amount of criticism they face, and I am not thinking of the constructive kind...

Two tough issues, not easy to fix. Maybe MPS needs to be broken up into smaller units to improve, IDK. And yes, the reckless driving needs to stop. Parts of MKE do quite well, take Bay View, the Lower East Side, Washington Heights, Brewers Hill or River West for example. A lot of homes in those areas sell with 5 or 10 offers, so they are quite in demand actually. But not all areas can and will evolve at the same time. It will take decades. And to your point, some may never. But what I like is the de-regulation of our zoning code. Too much gov. This will allow for private investments from local small-scale developers and then we can see if the people of MKE have it in them

@@MarcusMKE I think you make some excellent points. And I do believe it is a positive move with zoning. I watch your videos because you provide excellent insights. I love Milwaukee and it made me sad to leave my first house in Johnson woods. Though I do love my oak creek house.

@@alexbernstein1450 Thank you! When I talk about Milwaukee I usually refer to the metro area and Oak Creek is great! Things are changing. Who would have thought 5 years ago that West Allis would be the #1 hottest market in the area measured in % over list price sold? Glad you like my content, please mention it to your friends and give videos a like - really helps it grow!

It wont be quick, will prob take a decade or two, but I believe MKE can do it

Absolutely! Milwaukee's real estate market can be intense, but we're not quite at John Wick levels yet. Maybe I should start including a chapter on finding the perfect tailor for custom bulletproof boxers.. What's your size?

@@InvestMKE 48 Long .