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When’s the last time you saw a mid-century modern duplex…in Minneapolis?
Until yesterday, my answer was “never”.
Why? Mid-century modern architecture of any kind in the Twin Cities is exceptionally rare, and a duplex even more so. In fact, it’s more commonly associated with places like Los Angeles, Palm Springs, and even Las Vegas.
But guess what?
There’s one on the market. Here. One block, maybe two from the Minneapolis city line.
It needs work but it is one of the better mid-century modern homes I’ve seen in the Twin Cities; duplex or single family.
Both units have fireplaces (one double-sided), much of the original cabinetry, and many original fixtures. While both units have basements, the side with four bedrooms also has a second full bath and kitchenette. The two bedroom unit features a private patio and the original kitchen.
The duplex is located at 6129 France Ave S, in Edina.
It’s listed at $309,900 and should not only cash flow, but have a long term upside as well.
Even though it’s a holiday weekend for many, I’ll be there on Saturday from 1-3 and Sunday from 2-5. So if you’re sick of your relatives, or would just like to see some wonderful architecture and say “Hello”, please stop by.
Mom will forgive you.
After all, I’d be willing to bet you might never get another chance to see a mid-century modern duplex in Minneapolis again.
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Apparently, Minneapolis and St Paul duplex owners have some deep emotional ties to their investment properties, because they’re not putting them on the market to sell.
New duplex listings for the week ending April 9, 2011, were down 36 percent from the same week one year ago.
Both equity sellers and lender owned and negotiated properties must be filling up a warehouse somewhere, because neither made a significant change in the percentage of Minneapolis and St Paul duplexes they were willing to part with.
Of these new listings, 35 percent were offered by traditional sellers. The rest will involve banks at some level of purchase negotiations.
Last year, traditional sellers contributed 43 percent of the week’s new inventory.
The number of pending duplex sales for the week was relatively flat, with 20 sellers accepting purchase agreements this year, compared to the 22 who did one year ago.
A whopping 45 percent of the duplexes that pended for the week were owned by people with equity. That’s a 13 percent jump over last year.
This was likely a significant factor in the average off-market listing price of $158,620. While this is likely to result in a somewhat lower sales price, it nonetheless represents a significant jump over last year’s average sold price of $112,182.73.
Apparently single family home sellers have a hoarding problem too. New listings for the week were down 30 percent over last year’s mark.
Of course, they’re not alone, as buyers seem to be hoarding their cash too, in spite of historically low interest rates and fire sale prices; so much so that pending sales were down 22.7 percent from last year’s tax-incentive inspired spree.
It’s probably the single family home buyers we need to do an intervention on. There are presently 27 active listings on the market for every buyer.
Minneapolis and St Paul duplex and single family home buyers and sellers probably need to see a therapist. But I just don’t know where we’ll find enough trash bags to clear out the clutter.
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Have you ever noticed that many Minneapolis duplexes sell for as much as a fourplex?
Why? After all, if there are more people paying rent, shouldn’t the property be worth more?
Not necessarily.
See it all boils down to that law we all learned in our first economics class: the law of supply and demand.
There are simply more prospective buyers for duplexes than there are for four unit buildings.
In the years I’ve been a Realtor, I would say that on average, at least 50 percent of the duplex buyers I’m working with at any given time are owner occupants.
Some are looking as a duplex as an affordable way to move into a neighborhood that’s out of their price range as single family home buyers.
Others are looking to owner occupy the property for a time, before moving on to a single family home while keeping the duplex as an investment.
While the prospect of having a single tenant to manage is palatable to most of these owner occupants, the idea of having three sets of tenants to respond to is overwhelming.
As a result, these owner occupants tend to relegate themselves to duplexes, where they compete with investors who are simply looking to earn a specific rate of return on a property.
More buyers in the market for a property always results in a higher price.
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If the Twin Cities housing market were on a diet, it would be featured in a Jenny Craig ad.
For the week ending June 19, 645 single family home purchase agreements were signed. That’s down 44.2 percent from the same week one year ago.
New listings kept eating fruits and vegetables too; down 8.4 percent.
Duplexes and the small multi family market also dropped a pant size, shrinking 23.5 percent year-over-year.
The good news is traditional sellers continued to hold their ground, contributing 42.3 percent of the week’s pended sales compared to just 20.68 percent for the week last year. This was true of new listings as well, with bank mediated properties weighing in at 51 percent this year, down from last year’s 63.8 percent.
The week’s off market price must have cheated with a couple of cookies, because it finished at $129,748. This is up from last year’s $114,580, but then again, we are comparing pended prices to closed transaction prices.
Let’s hope this week the market cheats with a Big Mac.
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Sometimes interpreting the Minneapolis/St Paul duplex market is a bit like reading tea leaves.
There might be some meaning in the patterns. But they’re open to interpretation.
For the week ending April 3, 2010, the number of new duplex, triplex and fourplex listings was up 18 percent over those properties new to the market for the same stretch last year.
Of these, 49.23 percent were being offered by traditional sellers. This figure meant a year-over-year decrease in lender owned or mediated listings of 20 percent.
However, it should be noted that the number of pended transactions for the week represented a drop of 9.5 percent year-over-year.
This decrease in sales activity did not seem to impact the average off market price, however, which was $119,734. While not the obvious improvement of recent weeks, this figure was nonetheless just over $9000 higher than last year’s sold price.
Of those properties that received purchase agreements, 26.32 percent had people sign the purchase agreements rather than financial institutions. This represents a traditional seller gain of nearly 10 percent year over year.
The single family market was a bit easier to interpret. There were 11.8 percent more homes that received purchase agreements than did last year.
The number of active listings on the market are also up, beating last year’s by half a percent.
Further good fortune is promised with the news that the average number of days a property is on the market before being sold has dropped to its lowest in years, while the percentage of the list price a property sells for rose. Most properties now sell within 2.7 percent of their asking price.
