Minneapols And St Paul Duplex Sellers Come Out Of Hiding

If asked to name one thing that’s changing about the Minneapolis and St Paul duplex market, my answer would be inventory.

After a year of it being in short supply, sellers have begun to test the water, and slowly, we’re seeing the number of new listings rise.

For the week ending August 31, 2013, for example, there were 25 new listings, 64 percent of which were brought to the market by equity sellers. While this figure doesn’t blow away last year’s 19 new listings and 36.8 percent traditional sellers during the same time frame, it nonetheless represents roughly a 30 percent increase.

Pending sales for the week told a different tale. There were 16 Twin Cities duplex sellers who received and accepted offers. Most (56.3 percent) were equity sellers. While the average final list price of these properties was a whopping $181,481, it’s important to note the group including a listing at $750,000, which is a rarity. When I remove this transaction, the 15 other properties finished at an average list price of $143,580.

Last year, there were 18 properties that sold during the same week. Fifty percent of these belonged to equity sellers, and they finished at an average sold price of $136,431.

The big news on the single family home front is the Median Sales Price for the month of August was up 16.9 percent over last year to $208,000.

On average, properties are selling for 97 percent of their original list price, largely due to there being just a 3.6 month supply of inventory on the market.

In other words, it’s a sellers market…which may be exactly why we’re seeing more of them.