One Week In Duplex Market Says It All

Sometimes the little things in weekly Minneapolis duplex sale statistics tell the whole story.

For example, the week ending December 25, 2010, a duplex by Lake of the Isles sold for $873,000.

It was the most expensive duplex to sell all year.

Which is cause to celebrate, right?

Trouble is, only six duplexes in the entire metro sold for more than $400,000 all year.

In 2005, the peak of Minneapolis/St Paul duplex sales, 106 properties exceeded the $400,000 mark.  The most expensive of the bunch, again in Kenwood, sold for $1,125,000. (That same property sold again in 2009 as a foreclosure for $443,000.)

But here’s the most telling thing of all. In 2009, 1402 duplexes sold in the Twin Cities market. As of December 25, 2010, just 839 had changed hands. While that total will change somewhat with the final week of December’s tally, it’s unlikely the shift will be significant.

In other words, the number of sold duplexes year-over-year was down 40 percent.

There was another significant difference between 2005 and 2010 as well. In the glory days of 2005, 2,731 duplexes hit the metro market.

In 2010, just 1873 did. That’s a drop of 31 percent.

In 2009, there were 2211 new duplex opportunities for buyers on the MLS. So even year-over-year, new inventory is off 15 percent.

That trend wasn’t necessarily reflected for the week ending December 25th. There were 13 duplexes that received purchase agreements. Of these, two were offered by traditional sellers.  This is pretty consistent with the same stretch in 2009, when 12 duplexes pended, two of which were sold by people with names.

Just 21 new listings hit the market during the holiday week. This is up by four from the year before; probably just an exception rather than an indication of a coming trend.

The single family home market, meanwhile, saw 3.3 percent fewer purchase agreements signed during the week than the year before. New listings, however, jumped 47.3 percent; which is something the single family home market just doesn’t need.

I don’t know about you, but I’m glad to be done with 2010.