The downtown Milwaukee condominium market is “experiencing a steady recovery” from the 2007-08 housing market collapse, according to a mid-year report on the downtown condo market by Milwaukee-based multi-family housing developer Mandel Group Inc.
For the first six months of the year there were 277 condos sold in downtown Milwaukee for more than $100,000, a 12 percent increase from the first half of 2015, according to the Mandel Group report.
“The sales volume is very promising, said Mandel research analyst Samuel Monnat. “If the pace of sales holds through the second half of the year, downtown Milwaukee would experience 500-plus condominium sales for the first time since 2007.”
Downtown condos that were for sale spent an average of 79 days on the market during the first half of the year, according to the Mandel report. The sales price/list price ratio for downtown condos for the first half of the year was at about 97 to 98 percent, the report says.
Inventory levels for the downtown condo market are tightening, the report states.
“July 1 active listing were around a 4-5 month inventory (the time it would take to sell all of the units on the market at a given time),” said Mandel Group chief operating officer Robert Monnat. “There’s simply not enough inventory, particularly above $500,000.”
But despite the tight inventory levels, prices have not appreciated enough to justify new condo construction, the report states.
“We’re well off of the $400 to $450 per square foot sales price we feel you’d need to achieve to justify new urban condominiums,” Robert Monnat said.
Numerous apartment buildings have been built downtown in recent years, but very few new condominiums have been added to the downtown market in recent years.
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