Where Have All the Minneapolis Duplex Sellers Gone?

Minneapolis saw just 39 new duplex, triplex, and fourplex listings come on the market last month; the fewest since January of this year, and the least of any November since 2019.

While historically there have always been fewer new buying opportunities on the market over the holidays, November may be setting us up for even greater scarcity than is the norm. The reason is November’s new listings are usually right around double the number of those that hit the market in December. If that’s the case here, the city may see just 20 new listings for the month.

The South Uptown neighborhood helped offer buyers something to look at, contributing 3 new listings. The Hawthorne, Whittier, Corcoran and Linden Hills neighborhoods contributed 2 each as well.

A 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom duplex in the Webber-Camden neighborhood was the bargain of the bunch, listing at $224,900. A 10 bedroom, 4 bathroom turnkey Prospect Park duplex that generates over $82,000 in annual rent may actually be a good investment for the parent of a U of M student at $995,000.

The lack of inventory is important because in spite of the holidays, there are still a lot of buyers looking.  Forty-three properties sold in November at an average price of $432,753. This was 48% more transactions than last year. Of course, increased sales without a robust supply of new inventory also meant properties already active on the market received offers. This in turn lowered the month’s supply of inventory to 3.

Anything less than a 5 or 6 month supply means it’s a seller’s market. While this is certainly true here, buyer’s appear to be less reluctant to pay above list price, as on average, seller’s accepted offers that were at 97.1% of their original asking price.

Sellers averaged just 36 days on the market, a number that swells to 50 when including days accrued from being listed earlier in the year then cancelled and put back on the market.

The month’s high seller was a 9 bedroom, 5 bathroom duplex in the Kenwood neighborhood which fetched the seller’s $1,050,000.  A 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom house conversion with a new 3 car garage in the Webber-Camden neighborhood is already under contract as it was listed at $146,070.

Minneapolis has experienced a persistent lack of small multifamily inventory for well over a decade (more on that later). At some point, that will change and buyers will be back in the driver’s seat. Until then, it’s a great time to be one of the rare Minneapolis duplex sellers!