Duplexes For Sale in Short Supply

duplex sellers in short supplyWhen there’s a gasoline shortage, the average price per gallon goes up. When there’s a water shortage, people hold on to what they’ve got and prices go up. And when there’s a shortage of Minneapolis and St Paul duplexes for sale, prices go up.

The average list price a duplex left the market at the week ending January 26, 2013 was $216,158.  The average sold price for the same week last year was $151,665. Granted, the list price is generally higher than the sold price, but not 30 percent higher.

There were 19 duplex owners who received and accepted offers. Just 36.8 percent of them had enough equity in their properties to  not have to consult with a bank in order to sell. This is up slightly from the 29.4 percent market share traditional sellers had for the week the year before.

However, equity sellers did contribute  43.8 percent of the weeks 19 new listings.  There were 26 new listings for the same week in 2012, and just 29.4 percent of these came from traditional sellers. That also represents a week over week decline in new inventory of 26.9 percent.

Single family home sellers also seemed to be hoarding homes, as the number of new listings decreased 4.9 percent. Meanwhile, pending sales continued their uptick, rising 3.1 percent for the week.

If the trend continues, perhaps we should start exploring the possibility of issuing investment property rationing coupons.