Duplex Listings Fly Downhill

If you look at a graph of the number of new Minneapolis and St Paul duplex and single family home listings over the last year, it looks like the best sliding hill you’ve ever seen; not too steep, and not so gentle as to cause your sled to go slow.

That would be a great thing; if we had more snow, and of course, if you could toboggan your way down a graph.

The trouble is, however, we’re talking about the number of duplexes and investment properties available for people to buy.

There aren’t very many.

For the week ending December 29,  for example, there were only four new listings. None of these were either bank owned or short sales.

For the same week in 2011, there were 14 new listings. Of these, just three were brought to the market by traditional sellers.

The current investment property market is extremely strong. And yet, there were just eight duplexes, triplexes or four unit buildings that sold during the week. The average price they were last listed before pending was $182,013.

For the week in 2011, there were 17 duplex owners who accepted offers. Six were traditional sellers with equity in their duplexes. However, the average sold price for these properties was $159,198;  12.5 percent lower than one year ago.

The single family home market saw the number of new listings to the market drop 40.1 percent from the week in 2011, overall inventory drop 30 percent, and pending sales decrease 12.6 percent.

If you’re considering selling your Minneapolis duplex, it’s a great time to do so. With such a serious lack of competition, yours may well be the only sled on the hill!