Trinkets of Hope In Minneapolis Duplex Market

Well, if you’re a silver lining kind of person, there continues to be a necklace or two of the stuff in MAR’s activity report for the week ending January 17.

In the duplex sector, there were 62 new listings; down just one from the same period last year. Of the 2009 entries, 74 percent are lender mediated.  This is an increase of bank involvement of almost 25 percent over the comparable week in January in 2008.

In all, 49 duplexes and small multi-family properties received purchase agreements. Of these, 92 percent were bank owned, leaving the market at an average list price of just $82,719.59. For the same stretch in 2008, 21 properties sold at an average cost of $187,197.62. Of these, just 67 percent were lender mediated.

Of course, the average sales price for duplexes could be seen as discouraging. Then again, what are the odds of the average sales price being down another 66 percent next year?

Over in the single family home sector, new listings for the week were down 18 percent from last year, while sales were up 13.2 percent. Total inventory in the marketplace continues to shrink, as the number of total active listings on the MLS are down 10.5 percent from the same stretch in 2008.

Let’s hope the economy stumbles into a vein of gold soon.