Duplex Sales Changing Seasons

Song Thrush, Turdus philomelosThis week’s Minneapolis duplex market report is a little late, but as they say, better late than never.

The good news is, the week showed signs of spring.

For the week ending February 12, 2011, there were 20 duplexes, triplexes and four-unit buildings whose owners received and accepted purchase agreements. Of these property owners, 40 percent either had names that belonged to traditional sellers who did not have to consult large lenders about the transaction.

This is off slightly from the 25 small multi-family properties that pended during the same week one year ago. The silver lining here is for that stretch, just 16 percent of the pending sales did not involve a lender’s input in the transaction.

This increase in traditional seller market share resulted in an off-market price of $148,978; a significant improvement over last year’s $118,006.

In another bit of good news, the amount of new inventory to the market was down substantially. While 54 new investment property listings hit the MLS for the week last year, 2011 saw just 27 new properties hit the market.

Tightening inventory will eventually result in higher average sales prices. This is great news if you’re thinking of selling, but should also get your attention if you’ve been waiting to jump in and buy.

The single family home market  also saw a drop in the number of new listings; down 24.9 percent from one year ago.

In an interesting twist, the number of signed purchase agreements for the week was down just 0.1 percent from the same week one year ago. Remember, last year’s buyers had the added incentive of an $8000 first time home buyer tax credit.

This promises to be an interesting spring.