September was another very active month in the Madison area condominium market. Here's our latest condo snapshot covering all of the most important trends. 

Dane County condo accepted offers

Accepted offers decreased by 7% year-over-year, but were still very strong from an historical perspective. The 139 accepted offers last month were the 5th highest on record for the month of September. Remember, year-over-year comparisons are tricky right now because last year's peak market was pushed to the summer and the fall after the pandemic arrived in the spring. Also, don't forget that historically low inventory is limiting the number of offers that are being written in this year's market.  

Dane County condo sales

Madison area condo sales

Congrats to our clients at 6713 Colony Drive who recently received a very quick, strong and clean offer for their home! Their success was due in large part to their commitment to the staging process, under the guidance of our stager, Debbie Lea, and listing agent Alan Feder. Working together as a team, our clients, Debbie and Alan set the stage for some amazing listing photos that were the key to this successful listing.

Killer kitchen photos

These shots show off the character and quality of this thoughtfully designed kitchen. 

Gorgeous family room photos

These pics display all of the natural elements in this unique and beautiful family room. 

Alan's plan included beautiful exterior shots, too.

These photos

Accepted offers and home sales were lower compared to last year, but September was still a very active month for the Madison area real estate market. Remember, the normal seasonality of our market was disrupted by the pandemic in 2020, which makes year-over-year comparisons tricky. With this update we'll help you make sense of our fall market while giving you plenty of historical perspective.

Dane County single family home accepted offers

Accepted offers decreased by 12 percent from a year ago, but don't let that fool you. Buyers have been very busy this fall. A total of 521 homes went under contract in September. Excluding September of 2020, last month was the most active September on record. The next highest September on record was September of

Do you have a favorite realtor that you'd love to tell the world about? Now we have a simple video testimonial tool that helps you share a quick story about your Mad City Dream Homes agent and how they went above and beyond to serve you. If you'd like to create a short testimonial, just reach out to your preferred agent to get started.

Your referrals and reviews mean the world to us

Of course, they help us connect with people who are in need of a trusted agent. In the bigger picture your referrals and reviews are a validation of our contribution mindset. They're proof that we don't need to default to traditional marketing tactics in order to grow our business. Instead, we can choose to grow more intentionally by focusing on community and

Earlier this year, CBS Morning News aired a feature story on how some people are choosing to move away from their hometowns that are impacted by heat, drought, wildfires, hurricanes, or rising sea levels.  

The story referred to people who relocate for climate reasons as "climate refugees" who are in search of their own "climate haven". According to one source in this story, the climate havens in the United States are located in the Upper Midwest and the Great Lakes Region.

The city of Madison was specifically mentioned as a climate haven because it is relatively free from natural disasters. It was also noted as a desirable place to live due to its reputation for having good schools, good healthcare, an abundance of outdoor and recreational

This is a question we've been asking ourselves a lot over the last few years. And the answer we keep coming back to, time after time, is community.

As realtors, we are out in the field each day, serving our clients, meeting new people, and interacting with other business owners. We've come to realize that simply by doing our jobs each day we have the potential to exert a tremendous amount of influence in our community.

In the big picture, we believe we can use our influence to help thousands of neighbors and business owners invest in making Dane County a better place to live, work, and recreate. If we can accomplish this, then our influence will be far-reaching. 

Our focus on community

Our focus on community continues to evolve, but we'd

Are you putting off your home-buying plans until the market becomes less competitive? You could end up waiting a long time. We anticipate 2022 will be extremely competitive for Madison area home and condo buyers, much like the market we've experienced in 2021. 

Our rationale?

The percent of listings receiving multiple offers right now is off the charts compared to prior years, which suggests to us that there is still a very large pent up demand for real estate in the Madison area. Here's some historical context:

2019

The chart below shows the month of April was the most competitive month for home buyers in 2019, with just under 36% of all single family listings receiving multiple offers. Up until 2019, this was a pretty typical pattern, with

Mad City Dream Homes is hiring! And we have an excellent opportunity available for the agent who consistently applies the right habits. In this real estate careers article we cover the 5 daily habits that are the keys to success on our team. Applying these 5 habits doesn't require any previous real estate experience, and staying true to them offers huge financial benefits which grow like compounding interest.

Agents who embrace these habits can expect to make $125,000 - $175,000 during their second full year on our team. Just as important, the entire team benefits when every agent consistently applies each habit. We all become more creative and more productive when we share the same focus.

5 keys to success on our real estate team

Apply these

Conventional wisdom says to buy a house in the springtime, as the weather warms and when new listings become more plentiful. But this traditional way of thinking could be misguided if we consider how competitive our real estate market becomes each spring. 

Each spring our market is flooded with a huge influx of buyers that far exceeds the supply of available homes and condos. We read articles online and we hear stories from friends about bidding wars, insane prices, and missed opportunities. "Buyer burnout" has become so commonplace in the springtime. And yet we always seem a little amazed and somewhat surprised that this cycle repeats itself year-after-year.

You don't need to buy with the herd

If you are planning to buy a home in the next

We've been hearing a lot of chatter in the Madison area realtor community about a slower real estate market -- and one that's possibly shifting -- but all of the data we are viewing right now shows a market that is normal and expected for this time of year. 

Single family homes

Take single family homes, for example. If we go back to the pre-covid era (2019), we see Madison area buyers were very busy during the first half of the year, and then became less active as the year progressed. As far as seasonality goes, this was a pretty typical year for our (pre-covid) market. 

In 2020, the normal seasonality of our market was disrupted by the arrival of the COVID pandemic in March. Buyers were less active in the spring, and much more active in the