WED AM News: Home sales up 3.5% over the year in October; Roundy’s paying $1M as part of settlement announced by DATCP

November 20, 2024

— Wisconsin home sales in October were 3.5% higher over the year as home prices and the number of statewide listings continued to increase.

A total of 6,282 homes were sold in the state last month, compared to 6,069 in October 2023, according to the Wisconsin Realtors Association’s latest monthly real estate report. The increase comes after September saw an 8.7% decline over the year.

Year-to-date, sales were 4.1% higher than during the same period of 2023, the report shows.

Meanwhile, “strong demand” for homes and limited supply have maintained pressure on home prices, as the median price rose 10.7% over the year from $280,000 to $310,000 last month. And total statewide listings rose 8% over the year, going from 19,104 in October 2023 to 20,641 last month.

“We’ve had consistent improvement in our listings beginning in November of last year, and the uptick in both new listings and total listings in October was a good sign,” WRA President and CEO Tom Larson said in the report, which shows new listings were 8.6% higher over the year.

Report authors note inventories improved in both rural and urban areas, but “remain tightest” in the state’s metropolitan counties, which had 3.4 months of inventory in October. Smaller cities and towns had 4.2 months of supply, and rural counties had 4.9 months of supply on hand.

“Although months of inventory are tightest in our large cities, they are getting closer to being balanced in Wisconsin’s smaller urban areas and rural communities,” Larson said.

Overall, the state remains a seller’s market as it would have needed 12,270 more listings in October to achieve a “balanced market,” with 6 months of supply.

WRA notes the average 30-year fixed-rate mortgage “reversed course” by increasing in October after declining between May and September. It rose to 6.43% last month, though that remains below the average rate from October 2023 of 7.62%.

“It’s good to see mortgage rates below the peak from a year ago, but it was disappointing to see them rise a quarter point in October,” WRA Board of Directors Chair Mary Jo Bowe said in the report. “Unfortunately, spikes in mortgage rates keep both buyers and sellers of existing homes sidelined.”

Despite the improvement in mortgage rates, the “spike” in median prices and “tepid growth in median family income” over the past year means housing affordability in the state has seen very little improvement, report authors noted.

See the report.

— Roundy’s Supermarkets, Inc will pay $1 million as part of a settlement resolving violations of product weight and labeling laws, DATCP announced.

The agency notes the settlement is related to 1,202 alleged short weight package violations and 90 alleged package labeling violations. Inspectors visited 81 of the 105 Roundy’s stores in the state on Dec. 13, 2023 and between Jan. 16-18, 2024.

Over the four-day survey, inspectors found 1,202 products had a listed net weight that was “unreasonably inaccurate,” and were overpriced by $1.44 per item on average. In one case, a product was overpriced by $7.04, the release shows. Overpriced products included precooked meals, salad kits, sandwiches packaged in the store, baked goods and more.

Inspectors also found 587 products with misleading label errors, with 90 of those resulting in civil forfeitures, according to the agency. That includes 55 alleged cases of selling a product by count rather than weight, and 35 alleged instances of failing to prominently display the product’s net quantity on the packaging.

The release also notes Roundy’s had received 63 warning letters from DATCP’s Bureau of Weights and Measures between 2018 and 2023. The company has now “committed to implementing corrective measures” across all stores to avoid improper labeling, including new signage in production areas and random weight checks and inspections.

Roundy’s is a subsidiary of Kroger’s, which is based in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of its largest brands, Pick ‘n Save, has more than 100 locations in Wisconsin.

See the release.

— Vaccination rates among Wisconsin kindergarteners have recovered somewhat from pandemic lows but remain below pre-pandemic levels, new CDC figures show.

Between 2018-2019 and 2023-2024, the percentage of kindergarteners in the state that have received the DTP, DTaP or DT vaccine has fallen from 96.2% to 85.7%. While that’s above the recent low of 82.6% in 2021-2022, it remains lower than it’s been for more than a decade.

A similar pattern appears for all vaccines included in the CDC data for kindergarteners, the only age group for which trends are available on these vaccines. Hepatitis B vaccinations have fallen from 95.6% to 91.7%, MMR vaccinations have gone from 92.6% to 84.8%, polio has gone from 92.3% to 86.3% and varicella has gone from 91.6% to 84.3%.

Dr. Stephanie Schauer, manager of the Wisconsin Immunization Program, says the decline in vaccination rates is likely due to changes in access to routine health care during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the “rise of misinformation and disinformation” about vaccines.

“Misinformation and disinformation have always existed,” Schauer said yesterday in an email. “It seems that with the rise of a variety of ways that people get their information (TV news, newspapers, social media, internet message boards, etc), it is even easier for misinformation and disinformation to proliferate.”

She also pointed to other barriers for families to access vaccines, such as difficulties finding the time to visit a health care provider and cost concerns. Schauer said many families aren’t aware of the national Vaccines for Children program that offers free vaccines for eligible kids, adding “cost should never be a barrier to children getting their vaccines.”

While the state has requirements for children attending school to get certain vaccines, Wisconsin also allows three types of vaccine exemptions. The exemptions are for: medical, religious and personal conviction reasons. Schauer notes many other states don’t allow all three of these waivers.

The percentage of students with one of these exemptions for one or more vaccinations has risen from 1.6% in 1997-1998 to 6.1% for the 2023-2024 school year, according to figures provided by Schauer.

“However, it is important to keep in mind that the waiver may be just for one vaccine and doesn’t mean the child is completely unvaccinated,” she said. “Only 1.9% of children are reported as completely unvaccinated (for those vaccines required for schools). This follows national trends of parents questioning or delaying vaccines.”

Meanwhile, different vaccines “may face different challenges” when it comes to immunization rates, as all have different schedules, numbers of doses and ages at which they start, Schauer said.

Plus, parents may have differing concerns depending on the vaccine, as the MMR vaccine has “been subject to more questions and falsehoods” than others such as Hepatitis B, she noted. And some parents may decide to delay some vaccines while going ahead with others.

In hopes of boosting vaccination rates, the state Department of Health Services has a media campaign underway to address concerns parents may have, while working with community-based groups to restore confidence in vaccines. The agency also provides funding through the Routine Immunizations Through Community Engagement, or RICE grant program for efforts to expand vaccine availability and conduct outreach.

See the CDC data.

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— StartingBlock Madison is accepting applications for the second year of the Summit Credit Union Fellowship for Women Entrepreneurs through Dec. 13.

The one-year program aims to help women build their businesses and improve financial security, according to yesterday’s release. It offers help from business experts on strategy and funding topics, as well as financial education and coaching.

The 12 women chosen for the program will start with a 12-week accelerator-style “boot camp” experience followed by nine months of monthly meetings with mentors. They will be selected by a panel of industry members, StartingBlock representatives and executives from Summit Credit Union.

Scott Mosley, CEO of StartingBlock Madison, says the fellowship program “creates a community for sharing ideas, insights, workspace and other valuable tools and resources” for female entrepreneurs.

The release notes applicants should live in south central Wisconsin, as in-person programming will be held at the StartingBlock startup hub in Madison.

See the release.

— Wisconsin’s grain corn harvest is nearly finished and continues to progress well ahead of schedule, according to the latest USDA figures.

The agency’s National Agricultural Statistics Service reports corn for grain in Wisconsin was 94% harvested as of Sunday. At this point last year — which closely matches the five-year average — the harvest was less than 80% finished, the report shows.

The state’s corn production is forecast to be 535 million barrels, which is 3% lower than the previous year.

Meanwhile, 94% of the state’s winter wheat crop has emerged, which is two days ahead of last year.

Farmers last week continued fall tillage activities “when conditions allowed,” as above normal temperatures persisted throughout the state. Other on-farm activities underway include carrot harvesting, cranberry bog maintenance, supplemental livestock feeding and manure application.

See the report.

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