2014 Minneapolis Duplex Market Full Of Promise And Shortages
While I usually blog on Tuesdays about the most recent data we have on listings and sales in the Minneapolis and St Paul duplex market for the week that just finished, January is a great time to look back on the year before.
And when we look at 12 months of data, rather than a week or even a month, we can start to see trends.
Take, for example, the Active Listings Dollar Volume for December, 2014. For the month, there was $92,600,365 in inventory available for purchase. While it wasn’t up much from December 2013’s $87,202,620, it nonetheless represented an increase.
However, when I say there’s very little on the market for duplex buyers to choose from, nothing underscores this more than looking at the Dollar Volume for Active Listings in December 2006, when it was $342,941,330; the last year considered part of the real estate peak.
Yes, many of those properties were over valued. However, that can’t explain everything. Closer examination of the numbers reveals in the month of December, 2014, there were just 468 active listings for duplex buyers to choose from; the lowest number of any month in more than a decade.
To put it in perspective, in December 2006, that number stood at 1395. In 2007, it was 1660.
Of course, if buyers have nothing to purchase, there are bound to be fewer sales. And so it was that in 2014, there were 1208 duplex listings that sold. This was the smallest number in more than a decade. For comparison, again to the boom years, there were 2033 sales in 2005, 2057 in 2010, and even 2013 saw 78 more deals than 2014.
Granted, values haven’t yet hit the $250,000 Median Sales Price of 2005, either. However, the $166,500 we ended 2014 with is still a great impovement over the $83,250 Median of 2009.
If you’re thinking of selling your duplex this year, things are looking up. Changes in FHA lending requirements (see my blog post later in the week) and pent-up demand are pointing toward a big 2015. Just remember, the spring duplex market always starts the week after the Super Bowl . This year, that’s Monday, February 2.
Of course, there might be a slight delay if we have -50 wind chills that week!