Twin Cities Housing Market Needs Hair Of The Dog

If the first time and repeat buyer tax credits were a housing party, then it’s fair to say the post tax credit hangover continued in the Twin Cities housing market for the week ending August 7.

Pending sales of single family homes continued stay in bed; down 36.5 percent from their mark one year ago.

With fewer sales, it’s natural that the amount of  inventory would continue to swell. In fact, there are 7.4 percent more homes available for sale than there were last year at this time. This month, there will be 8.64 homes available for every buyer in the marketplace. Last year, there was an average of just 5.28 for each buyer to choose from.

Duplex sales fared no better, with week over week sales dropping 25.6 percent from their 2009 mark. Of those duplex houses went under contract, just 13.79 percent were offered by traditional sellers. While this is an improvement over the 10.26 percent sold by parties other than banks for the same week last year, neither number is reason to celebrate.

However, it could be argued that the $118.224 average off market price for the pended sales is an improvement over last year’s sold price of $86,334, neither number is worthy of a party announcement.

Unlike single family homes, new duplex and small multi-family listings were down year over year by 31.8 percent.

While less inventory should ultimately put upward pressure on prices, and 7 percent more of the week’s new listings were offered by traditional sellers than last year’s figures, we’re a long way from anything resembling either price stability or appreciation.