December 2025 Home Sales Report
Moderated market performance for December and 2025
Date: January 22, 2026
December 2025 at a glance
- December closed the year with solid growth in sales and a moderate increase in prices. Compared to December 2024, existing home sales rose 4.4%, and the median price increased 2.5% to $312,750. Note that this market performance was especially impressive because December 2024 was a very strong month where both sales and prices grew by double-digit margins relative to the previous December.
- Overall, the 2025 housing market showed moderate growth with existing home sales 2% higher than 2024 totals, and the median price was up 4.8% to $325,000.
- Although total listings grew slightly over the last 12 months, new listings were down 5.9%, and months of available inventory also dropped 3.3% compared to December 2024. This continues to be a strong seller’s market statewide, and total listings would need to more than double with an increase of 107% to return to a balanced market with six months of supply.
- Every region of the state showed annual growth in sales and median prices for 2025 compared to 2024. Sales growth was strongest in the North region where it grew 6.7%. Solid sales growth was seen in the Northeast region, up 3.7%, and the West region, up 3%. Finally, sales increased a modest 1.6% in the South Central region and less than 1% in the Central and Southeast regions. The annual appreciation in the median price compared to 2024 prices ranged between 5.6% and 7% in four of the six regions — the Northeast, Southeast, North and South Central — and between 2% and 4.1% in the remaining Central and West regions.
- The 30-year fixed mortgage rate fell about one-half percent in the last 12 months to 6.19%, which helped push the Wisconsin Housing Affordability Index up slightly with a 1.5% increase over that same period.
Additional analysis
Continued Market Improvements
“It’s good to see a second straight year of improved sales in the Wisconsin housing market, and the moderation of price appreciation to a more sustainable level below 5% is also a welcomed sign.”
Amy Curler, 2026 Chair of the Board of Directors, Wisconsin REALTORS® Association
Mortgage Rates Continued to Drift Downward
“Now that we’ve closed out 2025, it’s clear that mortgage rates have consistently moved downward since peaking at nearly 7% just 11 months ago in January. Hopefully, this trend continues into 2026 and combines with moderate sustainable price appreciation and income growth to improve the affordability of Wisconsin homes.”
Tom Larson, President & CEO, Wisconsin REALTORS® Association
Quantifying Seasonal Fluctuation in Wisconsin Home Prices
“Home sale prices follow a regular seasonal pattern, with prices on closed homes consistently rising in the summer and falling in slower winter months. Statisticians have developed techniques to isolate and quantify the role that seasons play on data that varies systematically over the course of a year. When applied to Wisconsin housing prices between January 2005 and December 2025, these so-called ‘seasonal adjustment' techniques confirm that homes selling between December and February are discounted about 5.9% on average, and there is an average premium of about 6.4% applied to homes selling in the peak summer months of June, July and August.”
Dave Clark, Professor Emeritus of Economics and WRA Consultant
About the WRA
The Wisconsin REALTORS® Association is one of the largest trade associations in the state, representing over 17,500 real estate brokers, salespeople and affiliates statewide. All county figures on sales volume and median prices are compiled by the Wisconsin REALTORS® Association and are not seasonally adjusted. Median prices are only computed if the county recorded at least 10 home sales in the quarter. All data collected by the WRA is subject to revision if more complete data becomes available. Beginning in June 2018, all historical sales volume and median price data from 2015 forward at the county level have been re-benchmarked using the Relitix system that accesses MLS data directly and in real-time. Data prior to January 2015 is derived from the Techmark system that also accessed MLS data directly. The Wisconsin Housing Affordability Index is updated monthly with the most recent data on median housing prices, mortgage rates and estimated median family income data for Wisconsin. Data on state foreclosure activity is compiled by Dr. Russ Kashian at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater.
Note that the WRA employs a slightly different protocol to determine inventory levels than the protocol used by the REALTORS® Association of South Central Wisconsin (RASCW). For consistency, the summary tables for the South Central region reported in the WRA release employ the WRA approach. However, a modified table employing the RASCW methodology is available from the WRA upon request.