Milwaukee, Wisconsin is famous for its beer heritage, its Harley-Davidson bikes and … bidding wars?
Midwestern cities like Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland are attracting newcomers thanks to their welcoming atmospheres and relatively low cost of living, the Daily Mail reported, but a shortage of adequate housing is leading to fierce competition and higher prices.
Milwaukee clocked in a whopping 20% year-over-year median sale price growth in February, according to recent Redfin data, topping the real estate brokerage’s list of 50 US metros.
Two other regional cities — Detroit and Cleveland — were also among the top five fastest-growing property markets, alongside Nassau County in New York and San Jose in California.
The median home price in Milwaukee reached $330,000 in February, which is still more affordable than the national median of $425,421. Milwaukee, Detroit and Cleveland also had some of the biggest year-over-year declines in active listings, pointing to a growing rift between buyer demand and seller supply.
These cities’ turbo-charged housing markets are in stark contrast with the country at large, which saw a scant 3.2% growth in median home prices over the same time period.
The country’s broader housing market appears to be cooling somewhat. Homes are selling at the slowest pace in five years, Redfin reported. Pending sales saw their biggest decline since 2023 and active listings rose to their highest level since the early days of the pandemic.
“Some homes are attracting bidding wars like it’s 2020 again, while others are sitting on the market for weeks with no action,” Desiree Bourgeois, a Redfin Premier real estate agent in Detroit, says in the report.
In stark contract to the Midwest cohort, home prices in Austin, Tampa and San Antonio fell the most — particularly in Austin, where a home-building boom is beginning to pay off. In Tampa, the picture is less rosy. Sky-high housing costs and untenable insurance rates have led to a pile-up of housing stock.
Unfortunately for Milwaukeeans, there’s little relief in renting.
Early 2025 data revealed that these same Midwestern cities are also among the country’s most competitive rental markets right now. And while the Midwest remains relatively affordable — Detroit claims the lowest median sale price of any major metro — housing inventory is just not keeping up.