Minneapolis Duplex Owners Hoarde Inventory

First glance at the Minneapolis duplex market statistics for the week ending September 1, 2012, suggest we’re experiencing some sort of hoarding of duplexes for sale.

That is, until you look at the calendar for the same week last year and realize the Labor Day holiday occurred one week after it did this year. Isn’t it funny how people would rather go to the lake the last weekend of summer than be out shopping for Minneapolis duplexes?

For the week in 2012, there were 20 duplex, triplex and four unit property owners who accepted purchase agreements. Of these, half were sellers who did not have to consult with a bank before agreeing to sell.

One year ago, there were 25 duplex sellers who accepted offers. Forty-four percent of these sellers had equity in their properties.

We had just 13 new duplex listings the holiday weekend. Just 38.5 percent of these sellers stayed in town for the weekend, while the banks selling the rest of the new inventory stayed in town.

Last year, there were 27 new listings, with 44 percent of these belonging to sellers with duplex equity.

In the single family market, the number of new listings decreased 10.1 percent, while pending sales leapt 13.3 percent. In all, inventory is down a whopping 30 percent.

This increased demand, coupled with decreasing supply, conspired to make it a sellers market. As a result, for the month of August, the Twin Cities median sales price jumped 15.5 percent to $179,000.

Thanks to a late 2011 Labor Day holiday, expect to see much of the duplex data change directions next week.