Comment
These days, there are so few new Minneapolis duplex listings coming on the market that I’m convinced some one’s going to have to start giving out ration coupons.
Really. There’s a shortage!
For example, for the week ending September 17, 2011, there were 36 new duplex listings available for purchase.
During the same week last year, there were 49. So, from last year to this, we experienced a 27 percent decline in new inventory.
Last year, 51 percent of these listings were brought to the market by duplex owners with equity.
This year, 53 percent belonged to traditional, or equity sellers.
There were 23 duplexes, triplexes or small multi family building owners who accepted purchase agreements in the second week of September. Of these, just 26 percent will not need to consult with the bank before they sell their property.
During the same stretch last year, 19 Minneapolis and St Paul duplex owners accepted offers. Of these, 32 percent did not need permission from their lender before agreeing to sell.
On average, these sellers from one year ago received $107,100 for the sale of their property.
This year, the average property a duplex was listed at before it became a pending sale was $104,560. As sold prices, as of late, have averaged less than list prices, odds are we will see a more significant drop when sold prices are recorded.
While not nearly as dramatic as the Minneapolis duplex market, new single family home listings were down 22.5 percent for the week, marking the 15th straight week of new inventory decline.
Meanwhile, pending sales were up 40.6 percent.
Overall, there are 22.5 percent fewer single family homes available to purchase on the Twin Cities market than there were one year ago.
While I doubt they’re at the place where they’re going to ration home sales, duplex coupons might not be far away.
Comment
Sometimes the Minneapolis duplex market is a bit like walking down an icy sidewalk. You may not look gracefull or pretty while traversing it, but if you don’t fall down, that’s good enough.
And for the week ending December 4, the real estate market didn’t fall down.
Twenty-six duplex, triplex and fourplex listings received and accepted purchase agreements for the week; up one from the same week in 2009.
Of those transactions, 15.4 percent involved traditional sellers; down ever so slightly from last year’s 16 percent.
However, the average off-market price for the week of $111,894 slipped a bit from last year’s sold average of $117,452.
There were 38 new investment properties listed for the week, down one from last year. Of these, 36.8 percent were offered by traditional sellers; representing a nearly 5 percent decline of market share week over week.
Meanwhile, pending single family home sales actually got a bit of traction, climbing 10 percent from the same week last year. That mark represents the first year-over-year increase in 30 weeks.
The amount of newly listed single family homes also found a bit of balance, dropping 13.8 percent from last year. This represents the 11th consecutive week of inventory decline.
Comment
Thank God that shipment of newly listed single family homes and duplexes hit the market just in time for the expiration of the first time and repeat buyer tax credits.
I’m being sarcastic, of course.
But with 2,147 new single family listings for the week ending April 24, representing an increase of 19.1 percent over last year, and duplex and multifamily listings up 32.7 percent year over year, it does appear sellers were rushing to get their properties on the market before the incentives ended.
Traditional sellers represented a clear majority of the new to market duplexes, with 60,9 percent of the new listings. This represents a significant jump from last year’s 21.2 percent market share.
Of the multifamily properties that received purchase agreements over the week, 38 percent were offered by traditional sellers. While not the majority of the transactions, this figure nonetheless represents healthy improvement over last year’s 7.9 percent.
This increase in traditional seller market share may also account for the average off market price of $155,428 compared to $88,026 for the same week last year.
Have the tax credits had an impact? We won’t know until the numbers for last week come in, but pended single family home sales for the week were up 9.8 percent over the same stretch last year.
Guess we’ll have to wait until next week’s report to see if sellers, as well as buyers, benefited from the tax credit’s end.
Comment
As the $8000 first time home buyer and $6500 repeat buyer tax credits round the bases for home, the Twin Cities housing market appears to be staging a late inning rally.
For the week ending April 10, 2010, the number of new listings to hit the market was up 47.9 percent over the same week last year. In spite of this leap, there is still just 6.5 months of housing inventory in the marketplace; the lowest supply in years.
Pending sales were also ahead of last year, though the 3.6 percent jump wasn’t enough to seal a victory.
Meanwhile, the Twin Cities duplex market seems to need a seventh inning stretch. The number of properties to receive purchase agreements for the week was down 39 percent from last year. Of those transactions, 32 percent belonged to traditional sellers, with the balance involving some sort of negotiations with a lender.
This slow re-emergence of the traditional seller has served to boost the average price a property leaves active status on the MLS at. For the week, this figure was $106,489; a grand slam when compared with last year’s $80,873.
While excess supply can often lead to falling prices, the week’s 23 percent year-over-year gain was as welcome as a seventh inning stretch. Much of the existing inventory had been sitting for a while, and the appearance of great new listings gave duplex buyers in search of a tax credit something to cheer.
Remember, the deadline for both tax credits is April 30. By then, buyers must have a signed purchase agreement in place, with closing on the property occuring no later than the end of June.
Comment
Was it a rite of spring?
Or a magic act?
Either way, the Minneapolis duplex market managed to pull a rabbit out of its hat the week ending March 27, with pended sales up 62.5 percent from the same week one year ago.
Of those proeprties that received purchase agreements, 28.21 percent were signed by traditional sellers. While this seems like a disappearing act compared to previous weeks, it’s important to note that ALL of the pended sales for the week in 2009 were offered or mediated by financial institutions.
A still more stupendous feat may well be the fact that the average off market price for the week was $110,077. This made last year’s average sale price of $64,605.
For the week, new inventory performed something of a disappearing act; dropping 26.15 percent from last year. Again, this should help put upward pressure on prices.
The opposite was true in the single family home market. New listings for the week were up 29.4 percent over one year ago.
The good news is pending sales were up 13.8 percent, with the total number of signed purchase agreements topping 1000.
While not as impressive of a trick as making an airplane disappear, has managed to reduce the Supply-Demand Ratio to just 4.39 homes per buyer; the lowest it’s been in years.
Let’s hope there’s more magic yet to come.
Comment
Believe it or not, in some sectors of the Twin Cities housing market have begun to thaw. In fact, it feels like spring: of 2006.
Realtors and our clients are once again experiencing multiple offers and having to rush to see newly listed properties before they’re gone.
Unfortunately, the bulk of this activity is in first time home buyer territory; namely, those properties below $225,000.
But there are hints in MAR’s Weekly Market Activity Report that perhaps things are loosening up. For the week ending February 20, pending sales were actually 9.9 percent higher than they were for last year. This is the first year-over-year increase we’ve seen in weeks.
With just 5.39 homes available for each active buyer in the market, a 17.7 percent increase in the number of new listings for the week may help those facing multiple offers find homes. There are 6.9 percent fewer homes available for purchase this year than there were at this point in 2009.
In the small multifamily sector, traditional sellers continued to gain ground on the banks. Twenty-five percent of the owners of properties that received purchase agreements were people, not corporations. Of those listings new to the marketplace, 48.14 percent were being sold by people with actual names.
While the number of pended duplex sales was down 38.5 percent, the good news is the average price they left active status at was $121,509. This represents a significant leap over last year’s sold price of $94,671.23.
As we head toward the $8000 first time home buyer and $6500 repeat buyer tax credit April 30 deadline, we’re sure to see even more signs of spring.
Comment
MAAR issued its Weekly Market Activity Report this morning and by all appearances, housing transactions for the week ending January 30, 2010, remained in their meditative state.
Pending single family home sales were down just slightly from the same week in 2009, while the number of signed purchase agreements rose just 0.7 percent.
The number of new single family home listings didn’t make any real perceptible moves either, dropping 3.7 percent year over year.
The duplex and small multi-family market showed a few signs of movement, but most were slight. For example, of the properties this year that received purchase agreements, 95 percent involve a lender in the negotiations. This is down .5 percent from last year.
The average pended price of properties for the week in 2010 was $98,395, compared with last year’s average sale price of $93,118.
New listings for the week trailed last year by 12.3 percent. The good news is 40.35 percent of the week’s new inventory was offered by traditional sellers, compared with just 26 percent for last year.
Let’s hope the tranquility doesn’t last.
Comment
The buyer’s market is over.
Buried in the Weekly Market Activity Report from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors was news that The Months Supply of Inventory in the marketplace is 5.
In other words, if no new houses came on the market today, in 5 months we’d be out of houses to sell.
A year ago, we had a 6.7 month supply.
Generally speaking, the housing market is considered to be balanced, with neither buyer nor seller having the advantage, at a 5 month supply.
Does this mean we’re once again on course for double digit rates of appreciation for single family homes?
Unlikely. Especially with the distinct possibility of higher interest rates on the spring horizon.
The duplex market for the week ending January 2, 2010, however, tells an entirely different story. The average off market price for a pended duplex or small multi family property for the week was $161,237. For the same week in 2008, that number was $92,656.
The number of sales week over week was a bit less promising, dropping 16 percent. Traditional sellers for the week represented 19 percent of the transactions. This is more than double their market share for the year before.
New listings continued to be few and far between, dropping 38 percent week over week. Just over one quarter of the new inventory for the New Year was offered by traditional sellers, an increase of three percent year over year.
While the months supply of inventory and increased traditional seller market share are good news, it’s important to remember the vast majority of the market is still controlled by lender mediated transactions.
While foreclosed duplexes seem to be increasingly rare, the same cannot be said in the single family home market. There are persistent rumours of a shadow inventory of foreclosure properties being kept off the market by banks, though the validity of those rumors is difficult to substantiate.
If they exist, we’re all likely to lose our balance.
Comment
While the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors apparently isn’t releasing market statistics for the week ending December 21, 2009, I nonetheless have numbers to report in the duplex and small multi-family sector of the market.
Hey, CNN never takes a vacation either.
Pending sales dropped dramatically for the week from their 2008 mark. In fact, they dropped by exactly half. And while the most inexpensive duplex to receive an offer was listed at $13,000, this is more than twice as much as the cheapest duplex that sold in the same week last year at $5,900.
To that end, the average off-market price for the week was $110,170, compared with the $95,200 for the stretch in ‘08.
Of those properties that accepted purchase agreements, 6.25 percent were offered by traditional sellers. While this number seems paltry compared to data in recent weeks, it is, again, exactly double the figure for last year.
Traditional sellers did, however, hold their ground among new listings, comprising 37.14 percent of the market. This mark smashes last year’s traditional holiday offerings, which represented just 3.33 percent of the new inventory.
Comment
Remember the movie The Incredible Shrinking Woman?
After being exposed to a mix of household chemicals, the lead character, played by Lily Tomlin, inexplicably begins to shrink. This, of course, baffles everyone involved.
Kind of like the Twin Cities housing market.
Amid reports of a glut of foreclosures on the horizon, and an uptick in foreclosure notices, the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtor’s Weekly Market Activity Report notes shrinkage.
For the week ending August 15, there were 25,765 active listings on the MLS; the least since 2005.
There were 1,630 new listings for the week; the fewest since 2002.
And, there were 1,026 signed purchase agreements; the most since 2005.
Over in the duplex and small multifamily market, new listings were down 42 percent from 2008. The percentage of those new listings that will involve a lender in the negotiations lost an inch as well, dropping 1.5 percent year over year.
Unfortunately, pending sales lost a little altitude also; experiencing a 35 percent decline week over week. While I can’t prove it statistically, I believe this may be a result of a lack of inventory for owner occupants to choose from.
While the average off market price for the week was a healthier $112,620, it still trails last years average sales price for the week which was $133,130.
The good news is the percentage of bank owned or lender mediated properties that left the market appears to be stabilizing; up just 1.7 percent over 2008.
We’ll hope for a growth spurt next week.
