January 2023 · Market · 3 min read · by Kinan Sawar, MD — REALTOR® at Shorewest, REALTORS®
After two years of frenzy, late 2022 brought the first real cooldown in a decade. The question for 2023: normalization, or something worse?
Entering 2023, the question on every buyer’s and seller’s mind is whether the great housing run has finally peaked.
After the 2020–2021 frenzy, the back half of 2022 cooled sharply as mortgage rates surged. Bidding wars faded, listings lingered, and prices slipped from their summer highs in many metros for the first time in years.
The honest answer is: it depends on rates and inventory. A return to normal volume and flat prices looks far more likely than a 2008-style collapse, because the conditions are different — tight lending, scarce supply, and locked-in owners with no reason to sell.
The signals to track are the same ones that always matter: where inventory is rebuilding, where days-on-market are stretching, and where sellers are cutting. They’ll tell you which markets are merely cooling and which are genuinely turning.
Kinan Sawar, MD — REALTOR® at Shorewest, REALTORS®, serving Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee, Washington, Racine, Kenosha, and Walworth counties). Email: [email protected] · Phone: (618) 713-2964.
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Home values and rents are Zillow ZHVI/ZORI estimates for the named area, as of 2026-07-03; incomes and population are U.S. Census (SAIPE, Population Estimates); migration is IRS Statistics of Income. Area-level statistical estimates for information only — not an appraisal, and not financial, legal, or tax advice.