It's prime homebuying season in Wisconsin, but buyers will still find lack of homes for sale and rising sale prices based on April housing market data released Thursday.

A lack of inventory remains the key driver behind a 32.5% statewide decline in existing home sales in April versus April 2022, according to the Wisconsin Realtors Association. Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay areas all saw home sales drop 31% to 36% in April versus April 2022.

In the first four months of 2023, statewide home sales have declined 28.4%.

Inventory gauges the number of homes for sale at a given time based on the pace of sales in a housing market. Statewide, there are enough homes for sale to last 2½ months, which is not a whole lot. Metro areas like Milwaukee, Green Bay and Appleton have even less inventory available.

Here are six takeaways from April housing market data.

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Two stats to explain Wisconsin's current inventory woes

Inventory helps determine whether the housing market favors buyers (more than six months of inventory), sellers (less than six months) or is balanced (right around six months). The current shortage of homes for sale makes this a heavy seller's market, and buyers face strong competition and high prices.

WRA highlighted just how far away the state is from getting back to balanced: Wisconsin would need to add 21,000 listings, more than double the 15,100 homes currently for sale, to get back to balanced conditions.

"This represents an increase of 138% from the April total statewide inventory of 15,167 homes," WRA noted.

The other key stat, 32.6%, is the decline in new homes put on the market statewide in the last year. Fewer listings means more buyers compete for homes on the market, pushing prices higher.

The state's lack of inventory is even more pronounced in the $125,000 to $350,000 price range, a range generally considered affordable to younger families and first-time homebuyers. WRA reported only 1.7 months of inventory in the $125,000 to $200,000 range and two months of inventory in the $200,000 to $350,000 range.

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Mortgage interest rates have declined slightly

The 30-year mortgage interest rate declined slightly since March to 6.39% in mid-May. It peaked in November at 7.08%.

The 15-year mortgage interest rate also declined to 5.75%. It peaked in November at 6.38%.

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Joe Horning, chairman of the WRA board of directors, said in a media release the historic low interest rates in 2020 and 2021 is contributing to the ongoing inventory shortage.

“One reason housing inventory is so low is that current homeowners thinking about buying anotherhome are likely sitting on very favorable mortgage rates, especially if they refinanced over the last coupleof years," Horning said. "Rates have more than doubled since hitting bottom at the end of 2020, and homeowners may be reluctant to give up those record-low rates to buy another home.”

Median prices continue to rise, but Appleton, Eau Claire areas see declines

A few counties and regions of the state saw some declines in median purchase prices, but overall, home prices continued to increase.

The median purchase price continued to increase in April, up almost 7% to $283,000 for the month. Year-to-date, the median purchase price increased from $249,900 last year to $267,500.

Some counties at the core of the state's major metro areas did see median prices decline in April: Eau Claire (-6%), Outagamie (-1.1%), Ozaukee (-6.7%), and Wood (-18.9%) counties all saw median price declines.

Michael Theo, WRA's president and CEO, said overall, the pace of price increases seems to be slowing.

“In fact, the median price of Wisconsin homes sold in 2022 was 10.4% higher than 2021 median prices. In contrast, the housing price appreciation rate for the first four months of 2023 was only 7% higher than the first fourmonths of 2022, suggesting demand pressure is easing," Theo said in a media release.

Fewer homes sold, listed for sale in Milwaukee, Kenosha, Sheboygan

The eight-county southeast region of the state saw, overall, a 32.6% decline in home sales in April, led by a 46.5% drop in Sheboygan County. Existing home sales in Milwaukee County declined 36.3% while sales in Ozaukee, Washington and Waukesha counties all declined 20-25%.

Year-to-date, the southeast region, which stretches from Sheboygan County to Kenosha County, has seen existing home sales decline almost 30% to 5,820 sales while the median purchase price has increased 8% to $270,000.

The southeast region's inventory level remained unchanged at 2.3 months, though Milwaukee, Kenosha and Ozaukee County saw the volume of homes drop once again.

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Inventory increases in Appleton, Oshkosh areas, unchanged in Green Bay

The 14-county northeast region saw an overall 31.3% decline in home sales in April, but results varied in the region's largest counties. In Outagamie County, home to the Fox Cities, sales dropped 45.8% compared to April 2022. Brown County/Green Bay area sales declined 35.2% while Winnebago County, home to Oshkosh, only saw a 12.5% drop in home sales.

The northeast region, which stretches from Fond du Lac to Marinette counties, did see inventory increase from 2.3 months to 2.5 months as Winnebago and Outagamie counties saw inventories rise from less than two months to 2.2 months, 22% increases in both communities.

More: 4 things to know about Outagamie County's spring housing market

Wausau area home sales drop nearly 50%; central Wisconsin sees prices decline

The median purchase price in the eight-county central region — which includes Wausau, Stevens Point and Wisconsin Rapids — declined 3.2%, from $206,600 in April 2022 to $200,000 last month.

The central region was one of two regions in the state where median prices dropped. The other was the western part of the state where median prices dropped 0.5%.

In the central region, home sales declined 33.8% in April led by a 48.1% drop in Marathon County, which is home to Wausau. Inventory in key counties like Marathon and Portage dropped 13% and 19.2%, respectively, to around two months of inventory.

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Contact Jeff Bollier at (920) 431-8387 or jbollier@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JeffBollier. 

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Homes for sale in Wisconsin dropped in April, pushing sales lower