You're serious about buying your dream home, but you know inventory is tight. So how do you achieve your homeownership goals in 2022? 

The answer is: by adjusting your perspective. By realizing that finding your dream home isn’t about finding the perfect home at the perfect price. It’s about finding the home that will help you build a better life. 

Or, put another way, it’s not about finding the home that checks all of your boxes. It’s about finding the home that checks most of them. 

So, even if the home you buy isn't the perfect home at the perfect price, it can be reassuring to know that your new home can help you create a better life. And it can help you create a better financial future, too. 

By paying down the principal on your

Prices keep rising for single family homes, and they're rising for condominiums, too. Here's our latest update on all of the important trends in the Madison area condo market.

January Dane County condo prices

The price per square foot increased by 12 percent year-over-year, while the average price and median price increased by 13% and 7%, respectively.

New MLS listings

A scarcity of new listings is one big reason for higher prices. Only 94 condos were listed for sale last month, which was a new low for the month of January.

Months of supply

As of February 12th, only 86 condo listings were available for purchase, which is the equivalent of .6 months of inventory. Where will inventory go from here? Check out this recent article for

In the past few months we've been sharing some of the key trends impacting supply and demand for Dane County real estate. Here's a quick recap:

On the demand side

We see plenty of strength in the years ahead for two key reasons:

1. The millennial generation, America's largest, is aging into its prime years for homeownership. 
2. Dane County is the fastest growing region in the state, and we expect many more people will continue to move here for reputation, quality of life, economic, and climate-related reasons. 

On the supply side

We see two big trends at play that will continue to limit inventory and support higher prices:

1. Foreclosures are occurring near historically low levels, and we expect distressed sales to remain low for the

If you're buying in 2022, your offer to purchase will likely be up against offers from other motivated buyers. Below are 28 ways you can make your offer stand out from the competition and be the one that gets accepted. Of course the strategies you use will depend a lot on the type and condition of the property, your level of motivation, and how much competition you have from other parties. 

28 Ways to Write a Winning Offer

#1: Submit your mortgage pre-approval from a reputable, local lender. A pre-approval from an out-of-town or big box lender can create doubt in the mind of a seller. For example, we've seen sellers disregard offers from buyers who are pre-approved by an internet lender. Give your seller every reason to believe your pre-approval is

The Dane County real estate market continues to run very hot even though we're in the midst of the winter season. Here's our latest update covering all of the most important trends in the Madison area single family home market.

Dane County competing offers

Our preliminary data for the month of December shows competing offers continued to trend at record-high levels at the end of 2021. Forty-one percent of the contracts written in December involved multiple offers, compared to just 34 percent in December of 2020, and 23 percent in December of 2019.

Dane County home prices

When competing offers are at an all-time high, we expect record high home prices to follow once the transactions close 30 to 60 days later. This was certainly the case in

The number of real estate agents is sky-rocketing in Wisconsin. According to the National Association of Realtors, realtor membership in our state has grown by 43% over the last 9 years. With just over 90,000 sales in the state last year, this means there were about 5 sales per agent in 2021. 

Putting the numbers in perspective 

While the average realtor serves about 5 clients in a year, our team members averaged 25 clients served in 2021.

Does serving more people necessarily correlate with providing better service? We don't think so. But if you were to ask any member of our team, they would tell you that serving more clients comes directly from our full-time commitment to our profession. In other words, because we're fully-committed to our

If you're aspiring to buy a home in 2022, your best option may be a new construction home in one of Dane County's emerging neighborhoods. Whether you choose to buy a lot and build your own custom home, or buy a home that's already under construction, new options are becoming available for you throughout the year. 

New construction advantages

Buying a new construction home offers three key advantages:

1. First, buying a new construction home usually gives you the luxury of purchasing without having to compete against any other buyers, which is a huge plus in this year's ultra-competitive market.
2. Second, you very often have the opportunity to customize your features and finishes, depending on the level of completion at the time of your

Foreclosures were once a major source of housing inventory in Dane County, but not anymore. Check out this chart which shows the number of annual Dane County foreclosure filings dating back to the year 2000. 

Will foreclosures rise in 2022?

Many people are wondering, now that the foreclosure moratorium has been lifted, if we'll see a spike in bank-owned properties in the months ahead. Although we do expect foreclosure filings to rise in 2022, we don't expect the increase to be significant.

The reason is the number of people with delinquent mortgages is relatively low right now. Plus, many of the people who are behind on their payments do have equity in their homes, so they'll be able to restructure their loans and avoid foreclosure once they

Our team approach to buyer representation is paying huge dividends for our clients in early 2022. Here are 3 buyer success stories from early 2022 that demonstrate how "teamwork makes your dream work" when it comes to buying in this year's fast-moving market. 

Lamia and her condo quest

Alan Feder and Max Woods collaborated to serve Lamia, whose goal was to become a first-time homeowner. Lamia needed to schedule her showings around her work life, and Max and Alan were able to flexibly accommodate. When Lamia's dream condo hit the market, Max arranged for a quick showing and Alan immediately submitted and negotiated an accepted offer before any other offers were submitted. Now Lamia is loving her new lifestyle in this beautifully renovated condo.