The “less work” appeal of condominium life is intensifying, with 1998 condo sales in metro Milwaukee running 40 percent ahead of last year.
Sales growth in the condo market has outpaced this year’s hearty housing market, rising to 309 units sold this January through March, up from 220 units a year ago, Metro Multiple Listing Service data show.
This compares with 3,008 housing sales overall in Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington counties, up 28.5 percent from 2,340 a year earlier.
Condos account for 10.3 percent of the Milwaukee home sales market, up from 9.4 percent last year.
Condo sales figures, supplied by the Wauwatosa realty reporting service upon Milwaukee Journal Sentinel request, confirmed what developers assert:
Condominiums, the shared wall, shared maintenance housing option, that Wisconsin legalized in 1962 are belatedly coming of age.
“People are valuing their time a lot more. Instead of working in the yard, they’d rather be in their boat. With that, plus an aging Baby Boom population, I think we’ll see more and more people looking for condos,” said condo developer Jeff Mierow, vice president of Mierow Building Co. in Brookfield.
This year’s early sales jump could signal a great year, because the condo market doesn’t generally come out of winter hibernation until late March or April, he said. Last year, Metro MLS reported 1,574 condo unit sales in metro Milwaukee.
Historically, condos have been a tough sell.
“In Wisconsin, we’re only about 10 percent or 11 percent of the market, much lower than other places. And it’s been a long, slow climb,” said Roger M. Raasch, facilitator for the Wisconsin Condominium Association, an Oak Creek management network.
Now metro Milwaukee has bowed to, if not embraced, demographic reality: Many people want a simpler domestic life than that afforded by a house and yard of one’s own.
“Some have a place in, say Brookfield, and another in Coral Gables, Fla. Some are working couples who are very busy and would rather golf, camp or hike than do yardwork,” Raasch said. “Another part is the single-person household they want to own a home for tax reasons, but they want to do what they want and go when they want.”
Condominiums can help solve the metro area’s dilemma over heavier regulation and rising land prices, Raasch believes.
Condo buyers Henry Graner and Ron Chikalla made sure they got adequate distancing.
Chikalla’s new duplex condo unit at Essex Place in Mequon sits on an acre, a spaciousness that developer Paul Apfelbach believes will characterize at least the upscale condos of the future.
Aging Boomers, born 1946 to 1964 and characterized by a seemingly unabated need for space, are his future market.
“Especially with the recent tax law change that allows up to $500,000 (profit per married couple) on a home tax free with no age restriction,” Apfelbach said.
“You could sell a $500,000 house in Mequon, buy a $250,000 condo and another one for $250,000 elsewhere, pay no tax on the gain and have a retirement home,” he said.
Boomers, affluent or not, are expected to make condos a popular, if not preferred, option, by sheer force of their 76 million numbers.
“As they get up in age, if they follow trends, they’ll want to downsize, and we’ll start seeing them gobbling up condos,” predicted John Englehardt, research director for the Wisconsin Realtors Association in Madison.
“Right now, I’d say condos represent about 6 percent of the market statewide, higher in urban areas — Madison is 10 percent, Green Bay, 8.8 percent. But there’s a lot of people predicting that this will be quite a market in 2005,” right about when the first wave of boomers approaches 60 years old, Englehardt said.
