Duplex Sales Are Tapioca

Real estate transactions in the Twin Cities area were pretty bland the week ending November 20, 2010.

Pending single family home sales were down slightly; by 4.1 percent. There were 579 pended home sales over the 7 days; right at the approximately 600 transactions a week we’ve been averaging over the last six months.

The number of newly listed homes was down just 1.3 percent from the same week one year ago. And as we’ve seen in recent weeks, that leaves the number of active listings on the market at 9.6 percent less than were available last year.

In the duplex market, just 22 properties received purchase agreements. Of these, only 18.2 percent were offered by traditional sellers. Last year, the same week saw 30 duplexes receive purchase agreements, with 30 percent of those signatures belonging to traditional sellers.

The average off-market price for the week was $114,232. While this is down slightly from last year’s $115,002, it’s important to remember the 2009 figure is a sold price. This year’s mark is a pended price, which is equivalent to the last price the property was listed at before there was a purchase agreement accepted. Most likely, the sold price will be somewhat less than that.

Of the 26 new duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes on the MLS, 26.9 percent were being sold by traditional sellers. For the same week last year there were 47 new properties to choose from, with 46.8 percent that did not require the participation of a bank in the negotiations.

Not terribly exciting, not horribly disappointing.

We’ll take it.