Duplex Sellers Get Happy

When I saw 27 new Minneapolis and St Paul duplex, triplex and fourplex listings come on the market for sale the week ending June 8, I had to keep myself from jumping up and down.

After all, we’ve been suffering from a severe shortage of properties to sell most of the year. And 27 seemed like a higher number than what we’ve seen over the last several months. Of these, the majority are either bank owned or require a lender to be involved in the negotiations.

My enthusiasm waned quickly, however, when I saw during the same week last year there were 39 new duplex listings for sale. Just 41 percent of these were owned by traditional sellers, meaning the banks had the greatest market share then too.

The good news is there were 20 happy duplex seller during the first week of June. Of these, 55 percent will walk away from closing with a check in their hand. At an average off market final list price of  $178,251, those checks are likely to have a comma in them.

Of last year’s sold duplexes for the same week, 50 percent of the 14 were brought to the market by traditional sellers. At an average sold price of just $141,914, however, their departing checks were likely smaller on average.

Single family home sellers welcomed an average Median Sales Price for their properties during the month of may of $194,000. Sellers are getting closer to their asking price as well, with the average Percent of Original List Price Received up 2.5% to 97%.

In all, we have just 3.4 months of inventory left to sell.

This should certainly be cause for sellers to jump for joy.