Regardless of the area of The Badger State from Madison, Milwaukee from Appleton, Eau Claire from Green Bay, Janesville from Kenosha, La Crosse, Racine to Oshkosh or anywhere in Wisconsin the state is like all other states in regards to it being affected by the global economic meltdown which followed the mortgage meltdown.
Foreclosures are in no short supply in Wisconsin. The state ranks 25th in this dubious honor. The number of foreclosures is in large part due to Wisconsin's incredible success of decades of economic diversification. Wisconsin has transformed from its origins as a fur trading and lead mining territory to an agrarian diversified economy. Today Wisconsin is a far more varied and a much more robust economic engine which is underlined with 24 of the top 1000 publicly traded companies are headquartered in Wisconsin. Companies as different from animal fur and raw minerals as Harley Davidson Motorcycles, Northwestern Mutual and Oshkosh all call Wisconsin home and provide a stable economy by employing thousands of citizens.
The residents of Wisconsin have the 15th highest household income in the nation. Along with the revolutionary transition of the economy was the migration of the residents of the state. This transition has created a density of population that has more than 68% of the entire population living in the Metropolitan areas. There are currently 12 cities in Wisconsin with populations over 50,000 while farming becomes more efficient and requiring fewer workers to maintain a productive farm each couple of years. Small enclaves of population spread across the state in smaller towns and villages that support bedroom and farm communities.
Regardless of the causes of the migration to the major cities and suburbs the facts are that foreclosures in Wisconsin are centralized around the more densely populated areas and have been on the rise for several years. Foreclosures should hold steady at this inflated level for the foreseeable future as banks and mortgage companies attempt to contain the flood of foreclosures in order to sustain property values and reduce their losses.
Most experts agree that the foreclosure epidemic in the state was caused almost exclusively by the sub-prime mortgage market collapsing under its own weight and the repercussions will be felt for several decades. This is made more evident by the fact that unemployment in Wisconsin is among the nation's lowest during the recent recession. Yet foreclosures have risen disproportionately and show no signs of reflecting the relative health of the state economy.
While the national average rests at 9.7 percent, Wisconsin has held steady in the 7 percent range. This indicates to most experts that the states robust economy, although currently stalled should rebound faster than the national average but will require the sub-prime mortgages be purged from the system. The sub-prime mortgage meltdown being the primary reason the unemployment figure is as high as it is and the state foreclosure ranking of 25 even in a better than average local economy.
Until the sub-prime mortgages have been purged via refinance, sale or foreclosure, the number of foreclosures will continue with the current pace. Until then, wise investors are looking at foreclosures as the best investment of our time. The real estate investment environment is unlike anything the residents in Wisconsin have seen before and should not be overlooked by both professional investors and home-buyers new to the market.
You should be buying homes that have gone to foreclosure. Buying as many homes below market as your credit can withstand. Why buy in a down market? Buying in a down market instead of trying to time the market to purchase on the exact day that the market sees its lowest point will allow smart investors to buy more foreclosed homes and rent them out or selling before buying additional homes and repeating the process. Remember all of those people that lost their homes will still need a home to live in and provide their family shelter. This new real estate economy is where the greatest boom in recent history for the state of Wisconsin will come from. If you are not in the game, get in the game.
Buying foreclosed homes in communities outside of metropolitan areas may require a degree of additional patients in order to locate a home with an adequate degree of equity and even then the resell will provide additional challenges because of lower populations.
