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Hopeful Signs in Twin Cities Duplex Market

August 12th, 2008 categories: Twin Cities Real Est

Last night MAAR released its weekly activity report for the week ending August 2.  While it may be too soon for outright optimism, there are a few less reasons for despair in Twin Cities real estate market.

For the fifth straight week, and the ninth of the last twelve, there were more purchase agreements written on houses than there were during the same period last year.

Overall, sales were up 2.2 percent from their mark last year. In fact, in the last three months, pending sales have been steadily .6 percent ahead of last years.  And, get this. New listings for the week were 19.8 percent lower than last year, making the average number of new listings over the last three months 12.8 percent lower than one year ago.

While all of this is good news, we’re not there yet. The average number of days a house sits on the market before it sells is 146. This is 13.3 percent higher, or 19 days longer than it took one year ago.

Meanwhile, Minneapolis and St Paul area duplex sales continued to chug along. Pending sales were up 195% over the same period last year, with 41 registering accepted purchase agreements, vs the 21 that did last year.

It’s clear the mortgage crisis had really begun to impact the market around this time last year, with 61.9% of those purchases being lender-involved transactions. Sales for the week this year, however, were comprised of 92.6% foreclosure or short sale properties.

Spoken by Kari Lundin | Discussion: No Comments »

Twin Cities Duplex Sales Remain Strong

July 29th, 2008 categories: Twin Cities Real Est

Time once again for MAAR’s weekly activity report.

Pending single family home sales for the week ending July 19 were, believe it or not, ahead of the same week last year by 3.9 percent. At the same time, new listings dropped 13 percent. Are these the signs of a changing market? Too soon to tell.

If the media reported the continued strength of duplex sales, we’d probably all have a different attitude about the state of the real estate market. In the week ending the 19th, there were 39 purchase agreements reported. This is a 260 percent increase over last year’s 15. Of the 2008 sales, a staggering 92 percent were lender owned or short sale properties. Last year’s figure consisted of 60 percent lender owned transactions.

An interesting piece of trivial information is the highest priced duplex that pended last week was at $474,615. The lowest at $7500.

I have noticed in recent weeks that it seems as if the jump in foreclosure properties in the marketplace happened right around this time last year. It will be interesting to track the ratios in the coming months, as I imagine it will forecast a significant shift in the market.

Spoken by Kari Lundin | Discussion: No Comments »

Media Reports “Twin Cities Duplex Prices to Fall Until 2009!”

July 21st, 2008 categories: Twin Cities Real Est

 

Gasp! 2009? Why, that’s a whole year! 

Or is it?

It’s almost August. Let’s see: August, September, October, November.  Count ‘em. Four months.

FOUR MONTHS!

I’m just having a little fun with the media. In this time of constant reports of doom and gloom, it helps. 

Oh. And by the way…I also saw a tabloid headline last week that screamed that Cher had to have a quickie wedding.

Why? Was she pregnant?

Cher is 62 years old.

Spoken by Kari Lundin | Discussion: No Comments »

Twin Cities Duplex Sales Up Again

July 8th, 2008 categories: Twin Cities Real Est

MAAR offered an interesting insight in today’s weekly activity report. At least I thought so.

For 10 of the last 12 weeks, pending sales of single family homes have been within five percent of where they were at this time last year; either above or below. While I certainly noticed the market slowing last year, I don’t recall there being quite the same sense of gloom.

For the week ending June 28, forty-three fewer single family homes sold than for the same time last year. New listings remained relatively flat, with just six more homes coming into the marketplace; an increase of only .3 percent.

In all, MAAR reports new listings in the last three months are down 13.6 percent from the same period last year. The result? A reduction in the number of houses available for every buyer presently shopping for a home. There are currently 8.11 houses on the market per buyer; a figure which is down from last July’s 9.76 per shopper.

Meanwhile, the small multi-family housing market continued at its robust pace. Pending sales were up 257% over the same week last year (from 14 to 36). New listings were also up 10 over last year (from 76 to 86), for an increase of 13%.

Nothing scientific here, but I have begun to notice that almost all of the good properties I saw over the winter and spring months, which were probably 5-10% overpriced, are beginning to sell.  That’s great for the market and the sellers, but it also means there are now fewer to choose from.

Spoken by Kari Lundin | Discussion: No Comments »

Twin Cities Duplex Sales Continue Healthy Pace

July 1st, 2008 categories: Twin Cities Real Est

As it does every Monday, the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR) released its weekly activity report last night for the week ending June 21.

New listings continued their decline from last year, dropping 10.6 percent when compared to the same week last summer. This has been the trend for the last 16 weeks. In all, the total number of homes for sale in the metro area is down 2.6 percent from the same time last year.

Pending sales were also behind those of last year: 1.8 percent. This has been the case for nine of the last eleven weeks.

The multi-family market, however, continues its surge. Pending sales for the same week were up 150% year-over-year.

Something of interest is this time last year seemed to show a spike in the number of transactions involving either short sales or bank owned properties. Last year at this time, 45.45% fit in this category. This year, a full 87.8% of the pended properties involved a lender negotiated sale. While this is still an increase, it is not nearly as grand as I have reported in previous weeks.

Meanwhile, new listings for the week numbered 49 this year; a drop of 56 percent over the same time last year.

Nothing scientific here, but a trend I have personally noticed is well-priced, owner-occupant type properties, whether bank or privately owned, seem to be moving at a healthy clip. Inventory of these types of properties isn’t as plentiful as it was a few weeks back, and if open house traffic is any indication, there are plenty of buyers looking

 

 

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Twin Cities Duplex Sales Jump Again

June 24th, 2008 categories: Twin Cities Real Est

MAAR released its report of market activity for the week ending June 14 this morning.

The study included some encouraging news: namely that the number of pending single family home sales increased by 3.8 percent over the same week last year. In the last six weeks, sales are down just 30 transactions over their pace from the same period in 2007.

Don’t break out your party dress just yet.

Of those pending sales, 27.9 percent were on bank owned or short sale properties. Sales of homes not in a distressed financial situation were down 21 percent over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, duplex sales continued along at a robust pace, up 133% over the same week last year. (Remember, I’m doing the math in this part.)

While foreclosures and short sales represented just 21% of last year’s multi-family statistics, they comprised a full 93.75% of this year’s.

Short sale and foreclosure properties are continuing to stunt sales for the traditional single family or multi-family seller. Once this inventory is absorbed, we should be back on track for a more balanced, healthy market.

Spoken by Kari Lundin | Discussion: No Comments »

Twin Cities Duplex Sales Continue At Healthy Pace

June 17th, 2008 categories: Twin Cities Real Est

This week’s market activity update from MAR is encouraging, but not quite the cry for celebration that last week’s was.

In the single family home arena, new listings for the week ending June 7 continued their leisurely jog, declining 13.9 percent from a year ago. Pending sales also declined by 5.3 percent when compared to the same time last year.

The good news is with fewer new listings, excess supply is starting to be absorbed. However, the market presently has a 10.4 month supply of inventory. What that means is if not a single new house came on the market, and the amount of buyer activity stays at is, it would take 10.4 months to sell all the homes available.

Meanwhile, in the small multi-family home market (2-4 unit), sales continued their healthy sprint past last year’s pace.New listings were down seven percent over the same week last year. Sales, on the other hand, were up 178%, with 34 going off the market the week ending June 7.  In the same period last year, just 19 properties sold.

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