Homes for sale in Door County, Real estate, waterfront property for sale in Sturgeon Bay, Southern Door, Fish Creek, Sister Bay, Algoma, Kewaunee

September 2019 Newsletter – January to August Market Review

September 18, 2019 by Kathy M

The real estate markets for Door and Kewaunee Counties seem to be stuck in a very good place. Sales are strong, median price is “stuck” in a very nice rut, and things continue to look good for the immediate future.

The biggest complaint I hear from our staff of very professional agents is a lack of inventory for low and medium priced homes. As is typical for any product, the higher the prices go, the fewer the buyers.

Median Price January thru August has been very stable over the last three years:

2017 $155,000

2018 $160,000

2019 $158,750

The number of total sales has been less consistent over this same period, but always in excess of prior years beginning with the 2008 “crash”:

2017 118

2018 143

2019 118

Here at ERA Starr Realty, we are proud to be the leader in sales with 276 total transactions between our offices in Sturgeon Bay and Sister Bay. The second leading agency checks in with 168 total transactions or 39% fewer.

Contact an ERA Starr agent for answers to your real estate questions. We are “ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU!”

August 2019 Newsletter: Year-to-Date Review

August 20, 2019 by Kathy M

July 2019 continued to reflect a very strong real estate market in Door and Kewaunee Counties. This extends a trend that started in 2015 and has been consistently strong over the last few years.

The year-to-date (Jan-July) number of sales and median price for the last 6 years is reflected below:

Year	No. of Sales	Median Price
2014	66	$127,000
2015	97	$145,000
2016	109	$136,000
2017	107	$154,000
2018	113	$160,000
2019	109	$150,000

As usual, the majority of sales consist of residential homes. In comparing residential home sales in 2018 vs 2019 we find a moderate decrease in median price along with a moderate decrease in number of units sold.

The decrease in number of units sold can be attributed to lack of inventory. We have seen this dynamic evolve over the last few years. Typically, limited supply will lead to higher prices. Not the case here. In reviewing sales data, we find that the strongest sector of the housing market involves lower and median priced homes. For Door and Kewaunee Counties, low and median price can be defined as $75,000 to $175,000.

The overall residential inland home median price through the first 6 months of 2019 for the MLS was $170,000 which is 10% lower than the $189,500 in 2018.

Median price for the City of Sturgeon Bay remained the same at $141,000.

Kewaunee County dropped 10% from $125,700 last year to $113,500 this year.

Residential shore home sales decreased a moderate 5% moving from $380,900 in 2018 to $375,000 here in 2019.

ERA Starr Realty continues to lead the MLS in number of transactions for the first 7 months of 2019. Our 2 offices completed 223 transactions while the 2^nd leading agency checked in with 141. As always, our agents are: “Always There For You!”

July 2019 Newsletter – Market Update

July 18, 2019 by Kathy M

June polished off the first half of 2019 in fine style. Sales remained strong, volume was good, and the outlook for the remainder of the year is positive.

The major indicators for the health of the real estate industry for any area are: Sales Volume, Number of Sales, and Median Price. The Door County MLS capsules these indicators for the several different markets in Door and Kewaunee Counties. In this report all numbers reflect the cumulative activity for both counties and compare them for the month of June in 2018 and 2019.

June 2018 showed 103 sales for a total volume of $25.0 million. Here in 2019, the number of sales increased to 116 and volume was up at $26.3 million. That’s a 13% increase in sales and a 5% jump in volume.

Median price for the first 6 months of 2019 took a moderate decline of 6%, moving from a 6 year high of $158,750 in 2018 to $149,100. This minor change can be attributed to especially strong sales activity with high end home sales in Northern Door County last year.

Next month we will take a closer look at the different markets for the full first 6 months of 2018 vs. 2019.

Overall activity for low to moderately priced homes in all the Door and Kewaunee markets remains very strong with many homes receiving strong interest and often multiple offers soon after being exposed in MLS and other social media sites.

When inquiries on homes for sale are received by many Realtors, an all too often typical response will be “sorry, that home is under contract”!

ERA Starr Realty has their hand on the pulse of the real estate markets in Door and Kewaunee Counties. Daily we tabulate what’s new on the market and what has just been sold. We dissect sale prices, locations, square footage, etc. to better serve our customers and clients. We are “ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU!”

June 2019 Newsletter – Year-to-Date Update

June 21, 2019 by Kathy M

The Door and Kewaunee real estate markets continue to be strong through the first 5 months of the year. However, there are some subtle changes that indicate the markets are at least leveling off. Leveling off can be a positive, and a stable market at the current level would be welcomed by most real estate companies.

Activity for May 2019 included 81 sales for a gross volume of $11.6 million. This compares to 86 sales in 2018 with volume of $15.8 million and 85 sales in 2017 with volume of $17.0 million.

All this resulted in a year-to-date (January thru May) moderate decline in median price:

2019 median price…$147,725; 2018 median price…$155,000; 2017 median price…$149,500

Much of this change can be attributed to an exceptionally strong housing market for low and modest priced homes in the Sturgeon Bay area where prices are typically lower than northern areas of Door County.

For example, in 2018 the median price of residential inland homes for all areas in Door and Kewaunee Counties was $181,000. For Sturgeon Bay median price in 2018 was $139,500. That’s a 30% difference! And that does not even take into account Kewaunee County where the median price for homes sold in 2018 was $124,350. Coincidentally, that is the highest median price for Kewaunee in the last 7 years (and probably the highest ever).

The biggest problem facing the housing market today is available inventory. Demand far exceeds supply for lower priced homes and it appears it will stay that way for the immediate future. This is all the more reason buyers and sellers need our help with their real estate needs. ERA Starr Realty has been helping to satisfy those needs since 1954. With our 3 brokers having over 100 years of combined experience, coupled with a sales staff of 22 highly qualified agents, we are: “ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU!”

March 2019 Newsletter – Market Update

March 12, 2019 by Kathy M

February, predictable, continues what is always a slow start to the real estate activity in the Door-Kewaunee markets. There is little information to help forecast just where sales and prices are heading as we get into the stronger listing and selling months beginning in March.

However, we do see that January and February’s cumulative sales generally mirror where sales have been over the last several years. According to the Door County Multiple Listing Service (MLS), there were 48 sales in February for $9.2 million in volume. This is slightly above last year’s activity.

Year to date median price checked in at $149,200 compared to $181,000 last year. This large discrepancy is the result of a few very large sales last year during the months of January and February. The two years prior to 2018 showed median prices of $154,500 and $144,500 with the $154,500 being the highest in the last 6 years, excepting 2018.

Residential shore home sales for 2018 continued what is now 4 consecutive years with over 100 properties sold. Here are the vitals:

Year	No. of Homes Sold	Median Price
2015	106	$330,000
2016	112	$394,950
2017	111	$384,000
2018	104	$393,500

In breaking down the median prices depicted above, we find a great difference in values and sales activity for properties located in different areas. For example:

Shore homes sold north of Sturgeon Bay had a median price of $600,000 for 59 sales.

Sturgeon Bay and Southern Door County median price dropped to $285,000, while Kewaunee County had just 3 sales with a median price of $335,000.

Information like this is valuable for customers and clients looking to purchase or market a shore property. Here at ERA Starr Realty, we realize that in order to maximize our service to buyers and sellers, we must do a very careful market analysis in order to best analyze the true value of any property. Please give one of our qualified sales associates a call. We are “ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU”!

P.S. My next newsletter will cover market activity for March and April.

January 2019 Newsletter – Year End Review

January 15, 2019 by Kathy M

December activity in the Door-Kewaunee real estate market was down a bit with the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) showing just 62 total sales for the month, down from 91 sales in 2017. Volume also dropped from $24.5 million in 2017 to $17.2 million in 2018; however, with fewer sales median price jumped considerably from $196,000 to $230,500.

Year end numbers compared very favorably with the previous 4 years. Below are the year end statistics for the last four years:

All MLS Sold Properties	2015	2016	2017	2018
Number of Sales	955	1,008	1,071	1,065
Volume in Millions	$198.5	$194.4	$233.0	$245.2
Median Price	$146,000	$145,000	$159,900	$165,000

Certainly the number that stands out the most is the 2018 median price of $165,000. The increase from the low of $145,000 in 2017 amounts to a 14% increase. This increase coupled with the strong number of sales indicates a very healthy real estate market for the Door-Kewaunee area.

Over the next few months I will focus on individual markets in the two county area. The differences within this macro market are significant. Kewaunee County compared to Northern Door County is like night and day. Million dollar sales in Northern Door were fairly common while prices in Southern Door and Kewaunee County were significantly lower. More on this topic in upcoming newsletters.

ERA Starr Realty is proud to have played a rather substantial part in the healthy market we have enjoyed. We again listed and sold more real estate properties than any other agency in the MLS system in 2018. With 395 sales and listings sold, we exceeded the second most active agency which totaled 286 transactions. This continues the decades old pattern of sales for ERA Starr Realty. Any questions? Call one of our agents…we are “Always There For You!”

September 2018 Newsletter

September 25, 2018 by Kathy M

Last month we looked at sales activity for residential inland homes in the Door-Kewaunee real estate markets. We found there were mixed results in the four main markets monitored by the MLS (Northern Door, Sturgeon Bay, Southern Door and Kewaunee County). The number of sales was generally down a bit, caused mainly by a shortage of inventory. We also discovered that the median price for homes was generally up with only Northern Door showing a decrease.

Now let’s look at residential waterfront homes. For a 12 month period during the years 2011 through 2017, we found the following:

The number of sales increased every year moving from 65 sales to 112 sales in 2016 while 2017 was down by just one sale at 111.
Median price ranged from $420,000 in 2011 as a high to a low of $328,750 in 2014. Most recently, we found median price in 2016 was $395,950 with a slightly lower value of $384,000 in 2017.

This brings us to the first 8 months of 2018. Sales activity thus far is locked in at 69 waterfront homes sold through August. Typically, September and October are strong selling months, so I expect total sales to approach 100 for the year. As always, available inventory can be a limiting factor.

Median price to date is $385,000 compared to last year’s ending value of $384,000. Median price for all of 2016 was $395,000. We can see that the last 2 plus years the prices for residential waterfront homes remained stable with a less than 3% increase from 2016 and virtually unchanged comparing 2017 to the first 8 months of 2018.

In my 49 years as a full-time REALTOR here in Door County, I have experienced many ups and downs in the market. One thing has been constant: While the “high profile” markets on the east and west coast can be volatile, here in Northeast Wisconsin we do not experience the drastic highs and lows seen in large urban communities.

Here at ERA Starr Realty we keep a close eye on market activity for all types of properties; homes, lots, shore property, condos, commercial, etc. If you need insight on just what is happening, give us a call….we are “Always There For You”!

	2004	2005	2006
No. of Sales	1126	1181	1047
Median Price	$140,000	$145,000	$152,000
Days on Market	295	297	314

September 2019 Newsletter – January to August Market Review

September 2018 Newsletter

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