moving to wausau/housing (Madison, Weston: real estate market, renting, houses)

[slimdiggy]

We are thinking about moving to Wausau from Madison. Our concern is if we don't like it, can we sell our house? We are looking at the 350k to 550k range and it seems like these houses haven't moved much in the past year. Not sure if this is because of the housing bubble or other Wausau-specific reasons. We were looking @ Greenwood Hills and Rib Mountain Way areas. If anyone has any advice on these areas or the housing resale please comment.

[hankejp]

Originally Posted by slimdiggy

We are thinking about moving to Wausau from Madison. Our concern is if we don't like it, can we sell our house? We are looking at the 350k to 550k range and it seems like these houses haven't moved much in the past year. Not sure if this is because of the housing bubble or other Wausau-specific reasons. We were looking @ Greenwood Hills and Rib Mountain Way areas. If anyone has any advice on these areas or the housing resale please comment.

If I had to guess, I would say the reason these kind of houses aren't selling is becuase the normal person in the Wausau area can't afford them. This is primarily a blue collar community with hard working families working at factories.

[ekg56]

Homes in that price range are sitting or being discounted. Under 175,000 they seem to be selling.
We live in Kronenwetter. Weston and Rib Mountain are good areas.

[Geechie North]

We just bought a home in the general area you've described.

As my wife said, "House hunting wasn't as fun as I thought it would be."

Many houses on the market here have considerable quality issues- and we are long-time NE Wisc residents, so we know (or thought we did) the basic situation for rural Wisconsin housing.

That was our experience, looking in the $225-160,000.00 range.

Caveat emptor, then some, around these parts

[Alt Dach]

Few in Wausau can afford home in that range,mostly doctors.

[gold*dust1]

Wausau is an ok place. They have a nice state park and are closer to getting up north. The thing is you,re fairly far from a bigger city, although they do at least have their own share of shopping venues.

[WIRes]

I disagree with HankeJP

If I had to guess, I would say the reason these kind of houses aren't selling is becuase the normal person in the Wausau area can't afford them. This is primarily a blue collar community with hard working families working at factories.

The community is primarily white collar not blue collar. Check out the demographics, you can Google this or go to Marathon County Wausau Demographics - Neighborhood Demographics I believe any zip code you click on will provide you the same results...more white collar than blue.

The economy is playing a large role in our real estate market right now. It doesn't matter where you live. I've had two properties on the market that are both under $150,000 and neither have sold and they are priced under the recently appraised value. One is located in an 'okay' part of town and the other is in a very desirable neighborhood on the Southeast side of Wausau. We were told that the 'right' buyer has not come along yet. Perhaps that is true, but I believe people are much more cautious about large purchases these days. We ended up renting out one property without much trouble which indicated to me that we are more in a renter's market than house buyer's market.

I grew up in the area and then moved to an area just outside of Madison where I lived for 10 years. The market in Madison is very different than Wausau. When I returned to the area in 2003, I thought houses were soooo cheap in Wausau. And they were in comparison to Madison. I had to reacclimate my way of thinking so that I didn't purchase a house that was really overpriced for our area.

My best advice is to look at a lot of houses and check out what houses have sold for recently in the area you are looking at. Houses in your price range could require more work to market if you do decide to resell. What appears to be a big issue in our area is very large expensive houses being built with the anticipation that the Weston area (particularily St. Clare's hospital physicians and Exec's) will purchase these houses. This has not happened. Now this could be a benefit to you as you could get a great deal as these houses have been sitting vacant for months or years. It really all depends on what price you get the house for originally and if you put anything into it along the way.

Just a thought, but another nice part of town is the Easthill historic district. Downtown is only blocks away from this area and the houses are spectacular. Houses seem to always sell there ...if priced right.

Good luck!