Minneapolis Duplex Sellers Don’t Make Sense

Duplex InvestingThe Minneapolis and St Paul single family home market looked a little down the week ending January 4.

After all, new listings dropped 18.7 percent from the same week last year. Pending sales declined 12.4 percent. And, overall inventory was 4.9 percent smaller than it was at the start of 2013.

But the Twin Cities duplex market?

Well, it just looked confused.

There were 22 duplex sellers who accepted offers to end one year and start another. Half of these folks will leave closing with a money in their hands. And, they will have sold their properties for an average final list price of $177,863.

During the same week last year, there were just 9 sellers who accepted offers. A majority of them (67 percent) went home from closing with a check in hand. Since traditional sellers always get more for their duplexes than banks do, it’s no surprise that these properties averaged a final sales price of $232,279.

Meanwhile, new listings for the start of 2014 were down 16.7 percent from last year, with 67 percent of the new year’s new sellers having equity in their property, compared with the 61 percent of last year’s new sellers who did.

As the year unfolds, I’m sure we’ll come to understand what it all means.