Interested in buying a distressed property in Madison or the surrounding Dane County area? Mad City Dream Homes has all the tools you need to quickly identify foreclosures and short sale properties. Read on to learn how you can use our search tools to locate short sales and REO/bank-owned homes in the Madison area. 

Example: Searching for Madison Foreclosures 

1. Go to our property search page.
2. Type Madison into the Location filter.
3. Go to the Foreclosures filter and select REO/Bank Owned.
4. Click Refine Search.

Our search page will then display a list of REO/bank-owned foreclosures in the city of Madison. Note "REO" stands for "real estate owned" by a lending institution.  

Example: Searching for Madison Short Sales 

Here's a quick mid-year review of the 2014 Madison area real estate market, courtesy of our sister site, DaneCountyMarket.com:

• Madison area home and condo inventory has been trending lower over the last several years. One reason is the sharp drop in foreclosures. 
• Home and condo sales are below the levels from last year, but remain historically strong. 
• Home building is trending above last year's pace, but remains well below the levels from the over-heated market in the mid 2000s. 
• With lower inventories and good demand, prices for homes and condos are trending higher. 
• Both homes and condos have also been selling more quickly. 

Searching for real estate by school or school district is easy with our suite of property search tools. We show you how with two simple examples below.

Example 1: Homes in the Middleton-Cross Plains School District

Let's suppose you're interested in homes in the Middleton-Cross Plains school district. Here's how you can focus your search in 4 quick steps:

1. Go to our property Search page.
2. Scroll to the School District filter and select Middleton-Cross Plains
3. Customize your search according to your preferred property type, size, price, and number of bedrooms/bathrooms.
4. Click Refine Search.

Our search tool then presents all of the properties in the Middleton-Cross Plains school district that meet all of our your defined criteria.

What does the new year hold in store for Madison, Wisconsin real estate? Based on our review of objective market data, we expect the 2014 Madison real estate market to be another good year for local home and condo sellers. Read on for more info:

2014 Madison Real Estate Predictions

1. Madison home and condo sales will continue at strong levels, but will decrease from the levels of 2013. The 2013 real estate market was a perfect storm for local sellers. Low prices, rock bottom mortgage rates, and several years of pent up demand combined to create a huge influx of buyers in 2013. These market forces are still at play in 2014, but not to the extent of the previous year. Our pending home sales data suggests strong but moderating sales in the months

Although Madison mortgage rates rose in May of this year from rock bottom levels, rates continue to trend in a favorable direction for anyone thinking of buying or refinancing a home.

Mortgage Rates from a Historical Point of View

This data from Freddie Mac trends mortgage rates dating back to 1992. Mortgage rates for 30 year fixed rate loans are currently well below 4.5%, putting current rates among the lowest for any time period in the last 22 years.

View Madison WI Mortgage Rates Updated Daily

Great Midwest Bank publishes its mortgage rates daily and online here. Looking to closely monitor rates? Sign up for the Great Midwest Bank mortgage rate watch.

Upcoming Changes in the Mortgage Market

Mortgage underwriting guidelines will

Wondering what the homes are selling for in your Madison area neighborhood? Or what the condos are selling for in your development? At Mad City Dream Homes, we make it easy for you to track the prices in your local market. Read on for a few simple tips that help you stay on top of the prices in your target location. 

Identifying Sold Listings

When you use Mad City Dream Homes to search for sold properties, you'll see results that display a red "SOLD" banner in the bottom left hand side of the listing.

You can then select a sold listing to view the full listing details. For example, you can view the sold date, the sold price, the virtual tour and photos, and the detailed description for every sold listing on our website. 

Search for Sold

Our Ballpark Estimator is a free tool you can use to estimate the market value of your Madison area home or condo. In fact it offers one of several ways you can use our website to learn more about the real estate market in your neighborhood. How does it work? The tool itself is very simple. 

Ballpark Estimator: How it works

1. You enter the address of your Madison area home or condo, as well as the number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, and the finished square footage. 
2. The Estimator then presents you with a list of 12 recent sales in your area. 
3. You select 3 of the 12 properties that are most similar to yours. 
4. The tool then presents you with a "ballpark price". The ballpark price is based on the price per finished square foot of your 3

Our MLS map offers a great way to search for real estate in Madison, Wisconsin and the Dane County area. Here's a quick tip for using our map search tool:

When you launch our MLS map, click the Show Map icon on the right side of the page under the FIND YOUR HOME button. When you open up the map, it will automatically update the real estate listings as you move the focus of the map, zoom in, and zoom out.  

You can also use our polygon and radius search features to target specific geographic locations on our MLS map. And don't forget to click Save Search so you receive regular updates of new MLS listings and listings that have undergone price reductions. 

Need help with your real estate search in Madison? Sign up with our home

Are you in the market for a home or condo in the Madison, Wisconsin area? Our radius search tool makes it easy for you to customize your real estate search according to the area that you define on our MLS map.

Our radius search works along with the many other search settings that we make available - property type, price range, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, and size to name a few - so you can target your ideal property within the map location that you specify. What's more, you can save your radius search settings and receive email notifications new listings enter the MLS and when existing listings undergo a price reduction.

Give our map search a try now. Or sign up for our home finder, and we'll find your properties and set up your

Searching for open houses in Madison and the surrounding area is easy with our property search tools. Let's suppose you're interested in Middleton real estate, and you want an up-to-date view of the open houses planned for today. Here's how you can find all scheduled Middleton open houses in 5 quick steps.

5 Steps to all Middleton Open Houses

1. Go to our property Search page clicking the MORE OPTIONS toggle button in the search bar.
2. Click the Middleton checkbox under City.
3. Select Search Open House under the Open House search filter.
4. Enter your begin and end Dates in the Open House Date Range filter.
5. Click FIND YOUR HOME.

Our search tool then presents all of the scheduled open houses to you. Each listing is identified with an