Minneapolis Duplex Market Thinks About Getting Trendy

Well, the folks at MAAR seem to be celebrating both MLK Day and the presidential inauguration, so we’re left with taking a look at the small multi-family market activity for the week ending January 10, 2009. The good news is there were some interesting shifts; not enough to label anything a trend, mind you, but interesting nonetheless.

First, 39 properties received and accepted purchase agreements in the week. Of these, 92 percent involved a lender-mediated transaction. For the same week last year, 78 percent of the properties that sold involved negotiations with a bank.

The average price for the nine properties sold the second week of January in 2008 was $115,620. The price for the same time frame in 2009? Drum roll please…$124,970.

New listings for the week continued their downward trend, with 53 new opportunities coming on the market. Last year, 76 small multi-family properties came on in the second week. Year over year, it appears the percentage of new inventory encumbered by lender mediations has increased slightly, from 61 percent in 2008 to 68 percent in 2009.

We’ll just have to keep watching for signs of a trend.