Minneapolis Duplex Shortage Continues

Following last week’s celebration of an increased number of Minneapolis duplexes for sale, things returned to their “shortage” status this week.

The number of new duplex listings on the Twin Cities real estate market for the week ending March 31, 2012, dropped 25 percent from one year ago.

Of these new opportunities, 67 percent are owned by traditional sellers. This is up from last year’s 43.8 percent equity seller market share.

The week saw pending sales slip by one transaction, with 25 duplex, triplex and fourplex owners accepting offers on their properties. Of these, 48 percent are sellers with equity. This too represents increased market share over the 23 percent of equity sellers last year.

This across the board increase of traditional seller activity translated to an average off-market list price of $149,004. While this is up from last year’s average sold price for the week of $134,018, it’s important to note that on average, properties on the MLS are selling for 92.1 percent of list price.

In other words, an average price once these transactions have closed might be closer to $137,200.

The single family home market is suffering many of the inventory shortage pains that the Minneapolis and St Paul duplex market is. There, the number of new listings dropped 12.1 percent, while pending sales increased 25.2 percent over the same week in 2011.

In all, inventory is down 27.2 percent. This helped the Median Sales Price for March rise 6.4 percent to $149,000, and the average length of time a property is on the market before selling to decrease by 10 percent to 144 days.

In all, we have a 4.6 month’s supply of inventory. Anything below 5 months is usually considered a seller’s market.