Wisconsin home sales dropped 2.4% over the year in September amid rising mortgage and a slowing state housing market.
That’s according to the latest Wisconsin Realtors Association report, which notes the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate rose to 6.86% last month. That’s the highest it’s been since January 2025 when it hit 6.96%.
WRA President and CEO Tom Larson notes both buyers and sellers will be impacted if this trend continues.
“Specifically, lower affordability obviously hurts buyers, and higher rates also keep potential sellers from listing their homes because they don’t want to give up the very favorable rates locked in over the last six years,” he said in the report.
A total of 6,284 homes were sold in Wisconsin last month, compared to 6,439 in September 2025. Just over a third of those sales were in southeastern Wisconsin, while the state’s northeastern and southcentral regions each made up about 20% of the total for the month.
Even as higher borrowing rates “softened” buyer demand, total listings and housing supply in Wisconsin increased over the year, the report shows.
Total listings rose 3.8% since September 2025, though new listings also fell 5.1% over the same period. And months of supply rose 2.3% to 4.4 months in September, continuing a slow trend of improvement since late 2022.
“Supply is improving, but slowly: large metro counties sit at four months of inventory, still a seller’s market, while rural counties are at 6.1 months,” authors wrote, noting six months of supply is generally considered a balanced market.
Meanwhile, the state’s median home price increased 1.5% to $342,000, which WRA says is the slowest annual increase since June 2014. But even with that slower growth, overall affordability declined by 5.5% over the year as “flat income growth and higher rates squeezed buyers,” WRA notes.
Looking ahead, WRA consultant Dave Clark notes the Federal Reserve is “committed to taming inflation,” which could have implications for further mortgage rate changes. He noted in the report the Fed recently raised rates by 25 basis points in September though is unlikely to do so again this month given the midterm elections.
But he added “an increase at the December meeting would not be surprising” if core inflation doesn’t go downward. Inflation rose to 3.7% in September, up from 3.4% in August.
“Lowering inflationary expectations is an important precursor to reducing mortgage rates,” Clark wrote.
