For the first time since March 2016, the months supply of duplex inventory in Minneapolis, St Paul and the surrounding seven county metro area stood at 4.
That’s important because it signals a market moving more toward balance, where buyers and sellers are on equal footing. To be fair, a 4 month supply still favors sellers. And, it’s important to note that in April of 2016, supply dropped to three months and remained there or below ever since.
Months supply of inventory is the measure of how much time it would take us to run out of duplexes for sale if we continued selling properties at our current rate and had no new listings come on the market.
Interestingly, the number of new listings for the month stood at 98. That’s up 26% from January, but 18% higher than February 2023. However, it’s also 30% below new listings in February of 2022, which was very much a seller’s market.
As would be expected, the average number of days a property was on the market before selling crept up as well. In February, it stood at 63; the highest total since the same month last year. There is good news. That’s 27% lower than one year ago.
There were 50 duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes that sold last month; up 7 from the same month last year.
On average, these 50 properties retailed for $409,383. This is just more than $6000 higher than the month before and $32,000 above February 2023.
The value of the week was a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom fixer in the Hawthorne neighborhood of Minneapolis that traded for $85,000. An East Isles 6 bedroom, 3 bathroom duplex was the high seller for the month, closing at $765,000.
Next month’s numbers may shed some light on whether what appears to be a slowing market is a result of a season, or is a forecast of what’s to come.