Why The Duplex Market Is Like A Bad Relationship

The Minneapolis duplex market reminds me of dating someone who plays “Come here, go away”.

We’ve all dated someone like that. Haven’t we?

One minute you feel on top of the world. The next you’re wondering what you did wrong.

Kind of like duplex, triplex and four unit sales in the Twin Cities for the week ending February 26.

There were 22 small multi-family properties that received an offer to purchase which was accepted by the seller during the week.

Of these sellers, 36.4 percent were of the traditional variety; meaning they had a name and a face, rather than a name and a coporate tax ID number.

For the same week one year ago, just 19.35 percent of the 31 properties that received purchase agreements did not involve a bank in the negotiations.

While this looks like traditional sellers are making gains, note too that the total number of sales was also down by 9, or 29 percent. This may be a result of the first time home buyer tax credit that was available last year.

It is interesting to note that the average off-market price for the week was $139,364. Last year’s sold price for the week was just $94,119.

Traditional sellers made a significant contribution to inventory new to the market as well, with 34.6 percent of the 26 new investment opportunities on the market.  There were also 23.8 percent more new listings for the week than there were at this time in 2010.

In the single family market, there were 30.2 fewer purchase agreements signed than one year ago. So, roughly the same decline as that in the duplex and small multi-family market.

However, there were also 27.8 percent fewer single family homes brought to the market this year than last. This may well represent 2010’s sellers recognizing a marketing opportunity before the tax credit expired on April 30.

The market’s definitely sending mixed messages.

I wonder if we could fix it by joining Match.com…