At Mad City Dream Homes, we’re allergic to “forced registration.” We do not require you to give us your contact information to see our website’s resources and guides. And we never require you to sign a contract to get to know us.

We encourage you to peruse our online profiles or call us to join you for a cup of coffee — there is no contract, fee, or obligation as you do your research. 

How quickly are new construction homes being built in Dane County? According to our latest housing start data through the first quarter of 2026, the pace of new construction is at pre-covid levels, and more the 50 percent below the levels from the early 2000s (see the chart below). 

How does the new construction pace impact the broader 2026 market?

A slower home-building pace suggests we'll continue to experience a tight market for single family homes here in Dane County. A tight market, in turn, points to rising prices in the year ahead.  

Where can you learn more about new construction neighborhoods? 

Our recent blog post provides a nice overview of 50 new construction neighborhoods in the Madison area, including two new larger

We are seeing more national headlines about real estate agents using AI to edit their sellers' listing photos, sometimes in a misleading fashion.

Our commitment to you is that we will always be transparent when we edit our photos with a "Virtually Staged" label in the corner. If we crop the photo, we'll add a new disclaimer back in. Buyers should feel inspired, not deceived, when looking through one of our listings. 

Virtual staging is a powerful marketing tool Mad City Dream Homes uses with the help of Step Inside Media. It is beneficial for buyers, so they can imagine what their belongings and lifestyle would look like in a vacant room, and beneficial for sellers who prefer to move out before getting photos taken.

Shelley's beautiful listing at

When we begin the listing process with each seller, we customize a marketing plan for their home. One of the most exciting tools we have is creating a virtual “dollhouse” tour with the help of Step Inside Media.

Click on the “Virtual Tour” link when you browse our listings at madcitydreamhomes.com/listings.php

This type of virtual tour allows you to “walk through” the home as if you were touring in person, room by room. You can turn around and view your surroundings in 360 degrees. This is a useful tool for buyers who are out of town or for serious buyers who want to look through the property again before making an offer.

Check out one of these virtual tours, in collaboration with Maverick Homes, with some spooky

It's usually more advantageous to price your home slightly below its true market value than it is to price your home well above what it's worth. 

Many sellers are tempted to shoot for the moon in this market. But pricing too aggressively often results in an extended days on market, a lack of competition, and an offer that is well below the list. 

Pricing slightly below market value, on the other hand, is a proven strategy for attracting multiple offers, with squeaky clean terms, and for prices that far exceed the list. 

If you're planning to sell your Madison area home or condo in 2025, you're bound to have questions. Reach out to our realtor team for a complimentary consultation. We're here to be a resource for you and help you make good

** This article was originally written by Samantha Haas while a member of our team. You can learn more about Samantha and her work here. 

Congratulations to our clients, Kelsey and Ted, on the purchase of a beautiful home in Stoughton! Over the last few years, agent Ann Raschein has worked side by side with them to both buy and sell as their family has grown and their needs have changed. 

In February of 2018, Kelsey contacted Ann that she and Ted were ready to become homeowners. They started looking at homes – mostly on the eastside of Madison – right away, at the same time of year that many other homebuyers were, too. Then in June, Kelsey and Ted saw a home on Waunona Way and were instantly drawn to the big yard, the proximity to the lake, and the

Sometimes your life’s work happens almost by accident. For Doreen Meland, designing and staging homes came naturally, even before she knew it could be a business. “I didn’t know I was doing it, but I was. A Realtor came through our home, and asked if I staged homes. After thinking about it, I decided it would be fun. My business has grown from there,” she says.

Doreen’s work covers a broad range of projects. She has a natural ability for interior design, and is a gifted landscaper. Both interior and exterior projects fill her portfolio.  She has helped clients efficiently stage their homes for sale. But she has also worked with clients who require a more thorough decluttering.

Doreen loves organizing. Recently, she assisted clients who needed to

** This article was originally written by Samantha Haas while a member of our team. You can learn more about Samantha and her work here. 

Have you ever looked around your home and wondered who else has enjoyed the beautiful view from that kitchen window or warmed up to that cozy fireplace? Unless you have lived there since the house was built, you might only know the names of the people who sold it to you or your family.  

There are several resources that can help you uncover the history of your home, and not just about who previously owned or occupied the house. You may also be able to research who owned the land before it was developed, when and for what price your house was built, the architect and specific house style, if it’s part of a historic

** This article was originally written by Samantha Haas while a member of our team. You can learn more about Samantha and her work here. 

Few neighborhoods in the Madison area offer the variety of homes that appear in the Nakoma Historic District, where one of our newest listings is located.

Among the hilly, curvilinear streets just west of the UW-Arboretum you’ll find numerous Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival styles as well as a smattering of Mediterranean Revival, Norman Revival, Dutch Colonial, French Provincial, Arts and Crafts, Prairie School, Craftsman Bungalow, Modern, and International styles.

Some of the best local architectural firms of the 20th century, including Henry Dysland and Law, Law, and Potter, designed these homes,

** This article was originally written by Samantha Haas while a member of our team. You can learn more about Samantha and her work here. 

At the turn of the 20th century, many new house styles emerged in America in opposition to the ornate, Victorian influences from Europe. Through the Arts and Crafts movement, Craftsman style homes were built to be more simplistic and to incorporate quality, natural materials like stone and wood. Frank Lloyd Wright also created the Prairie style of “organic architecture” during this time, with lower profile buildings that blended into the landscape and utilized sunlight. This movement made its way to Madison in the early 1900s, and Craftsman-progressive-prairie styles account for a third of the houses in the Sherman