January 2022 Housing Market Update: Oregon, WI

January 2022 Market Update: Oregon, WI

Hey there, Oregon! 2021 was quite the year for our local real estate market. Prices jumped, inventory stayed low and competition for the best houses was fierce.  What does that mean for today? Let's take a look at where we've been and where we're going in the Oregon, Wisconsin housing market update.

If you are thinking of selling this year you'll want to make sure you stick around until the end where we have some really interesting information that could save you thousands of dollars on your home sale. 

I'm sure you've all heard the stories of the 2021 market, right? 97 offers on a property, $500,000 over asking, houses selling before the seller even knew they were going to sell their house. Those may be exaggerations, but there is certainly some truth to what happened last year.

While December data is still trickling in, Oregon had the first year since at least 2011 (which is where my data stops) in which number of homes sold outnumbered the number of homes coming on the market. It's important to note that despite this, the number of listings coming on the market were not that far off from previous years. This is a great demonstration of the high buyer demand.

Oregon, WI finished the year with only 16 houses active on the market. This is a reduction of at least 30% over each of the previous years.

In 2021 Oregon hit a record (surprise, surprise) with a median sales price of $405,000 for single family homes - a 13% increase over 2020.

So, that's last year and where we've been - what does that mean and where exactly are we going? Quite frankly, we expect this year to be very similar to last year, although maybe dialed down just a little bit.

Does that mean you should sit the season out? Well, not necessarily. As I've discussed in a previous post, waiting out the season, or waiting for the market to shift, could cost you thousands of dollars down the line in terms of rising prices and increased interest rates.

Here's our current advice for local buyers and sellers:

Home buyers, if you are looking to buy a home, it is essential that you connect with a realtor and mortgage lender as soon as possible. Realtors can help you stay on top of properties, be aware of properties before they hit the market and connect with properties that aren't even going on the public market; whereas, your online search data is often going to be delayed when compared to what your realtor can offer you. Plus, realtors can advise you on the best strategies for you to use in competitive offer situations.

Meanwhile, your mortgage professional should be a local lender with a good reputation among local realtors. They can help you come up with creative financing options and let you know what your preapproval amount is so you can define your budget. In a competitive market the reputation of your realtor and your lender could be the difference between you getting your dream home or losing out to other offers, so choose wisely. Buyers should continue to be prepared to make aggressive offers and get a little outside of their comfort zone if they want to win in this upcoming spring market.

Sellers need to make sure that they do not allow the market to do the work for them. The best offers are going to come in on the best houses, and those are the ones in which the seller did not skip the work. Sellers that really want to capitalize on this market need to take all steps possible to make sure that their house really shines in addition to working with a realtor that's going to use new and aggressive marketing tactics to get their house in front of as many potential home buyers as possible. 

Oregon sellers, you may want to keep an eye on another interesting statistic. Based on information I compiled from the South-Central Wisconsin MLS: Oregon based realtors, that is realtors that live in Oregon and focus their business in Oregon, averaged 11 days on market, while all other agents, including those that charge a flat rate for their service, averaged 34 days on market. That means outside agents took three times as long to sell your house. Three times? That's insane. Why does that matter? It matters because homes that sold over asking price averaged nine days on market, whereas houses that sold under asking price averaged 65 days on market. Time on the market matters and it's going to affect your bottom line.

In addition, properties listed and sold by an Oregon-based agent sold on average for $7900 over asking price, meanwhile, properties sold by outside or flat rate brokers sold on average $2600 under asking price. That means there is a $10,000 swing in the difference between an Oregon-based listing agent and an outside based listing agent.

In town we have a ton of great realtors with a bunch of different attributes from all sorts of different brokerages that have many different avenues and ways of doing things. If you pick somebody local you're probably going to be in great hands.

As always, if you have any questions about your unique situation give us a call. We're always happy to talk and help our Oregon, Wisconsin neighbors.