Minneapolis Duplex Market Makes Its Own News

For the week ending April 23, 2011, there was some good news in the Minneapolis duplex market, some not so good news, and some information that was, well, just plain news.

Thirty Twin Cities duplex sellers received and accepted purchase agreements during that week. Of these, 23.3 percent did not have to consult with a lender before agreeing to sell their properties.

This represents a significant improvement from the 18 duplexes, triplexes and four unit apartment buildings that received offers during the same week one year ago. Of those properties, however, it’s important to note that 44.44 percent did not require consulting a lender in the negotiations.

This makes sense, as traditional sellers tried to take advantage of the market before the $8000 first time home buyer tax credit expired on April 30,  2010.

Of course, greater participation by equity duplex sellers usually translates to higher prices. Evidence of this can be seen in an average sold price for the week of $161,333 one year ago, and an average off market price for the week this year of $110,893.

It would stand to reason, therefore, that traditional sellers are not participating in the market as enthusiastically as they did last year. And this is partially true.

There were just 32 new listings for the week; 18 were traditional sellers. This is down dramatically from the 39 equity duplex owners who contributed new listings during the week last year.

But get this. Banks put fewer duplexes on the market in almost the same ratios. Last year, there were 31 new multi-family bank-owned listings for the week. This year? 14.

Meanwhile, the single family market was consistent in its patterns of the last several months. New listings were down 30.7 percent, pending sales down 25.2 percent over last year’s tax credit inflated figures, leaving the market with 13 percent fewer homes available for purchase than were last year.

In the coming weeks we should start to get a more accurate read on the true state of the duplex market, as we begin to see year-over-year comparisons, sans the impact of the tax credit.