There’s More To The Minneapolis Duplex Story Than The Headline

You may have heard of this thing called the Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller index. The media would have you believe it’s the nation’s most important source of information when it comes to duplex and single family home sales.

The report, which was released yesterday,stated for the second straight month, average prices for homes and duplexes sold in 16 of the 20 major metropolitan markets included in the survey were up. Granted, it was an average of just over 1 percent, but up is, after all, up.

So how did the Twin Cities fare?

Dead last.

As in experiencing a double-digit decline in sold prices of 11.7 percent; the largest drop in the nation.

This was a huge surprise to not only me, but the other Realtors in my office as well.

We’ve been incredibly busy, with offers coming in on listings that have lingered for some time and buyers having difficulty finding good property to buy.

In fact, to us it seems like the market’s improving.

And all the data coming from the Regional Multiple Listing Service in our area backs us up.

Yes, prices were down in May. But so were a lot of other things.

And that’s good news.

The Months Supply of Inventory dropped 1.6 percent to 7.9 months worth of housing. A balanced market is when there is a 5 month supply.

New listings were also down 5.5 percent between May and June, with the total amount of inventory for the year down 15.9 percent

And get this. Pending sales were up 48.1 percent.

Guess it pays to read the rest of the story.