Minneapolis Duplex Market Looks Younger

duplex market looks like joan riversIf the Minneapolis duplex market were a person, I’d suspect it either had some Botox injections or a face lift.

In other words, there’s something different about it; it looks better somehow, but I can’t quite put my figure out why.

And I probably won’t be able to until it’s gone all Joan Rivers on me.

For the week ending July 16, 2011, 29 Minneapolis duplexes and small multi family property owners received and accepted purchase agreements. Of these sellers, 34.5 percent were did not have to get permission from anyone at a bank to sell.

Last year during the same week, 21 properties had offers written on them which were accepted. Only four of them (19 percent) were owned by equity sellers.

The average sold price for these listings was $91,462. Compare that to the visibly different off market figure of $121,548 for the week this year. Granted, the average off market list price is always higher than the sold amount. But when these properties have closed, I suspect we won’t see that much sagging.

And check out this face lift…

There were 34 new listings for the week. Almost half, at 44.1 percent, where brought to the market by traditional sellers.

One year ago, 43.4 percent of the new listings were traditional sellers. Nothing too different about that. But, get this. There were 53 new listings a year ago. Just 34 new opportunities presented themselves during the same stretch this year.

That’s a drop in new inventory of 35.8 percent.

I guess it wasn’t my imagination that inventory was getting a little tight.

A similar fad seems to be happening in the single family home market. There were 8.7 percent fewer listings than last year for the week, while buyers signed 59.8 percent more purchase agreements.

Overall, inventory is down 17.2 percent over last year.

Whether these shifts are due to lenders liposuctioning foreclosures off the market or represent a new fitness trend in the Minneapolis duplex market, only time will tell.

But for now, the market does, in fact, look better with a few less wrinkles.