Twin Cities Suburbs See Duplex Inventory Grow

If there’s a through line to any of the data gathered from the MLS, it’s that across the metro, duplex, triplex and fourplex inventory is growing.

Today’s evidence is September’s 68 active listings in the 7-county metro area, excluding the cities of Minneapolis and St Paul. This was the largest active listing total of any month since July, 2018. This number grew, in part, as a result of the 37 new listings that hit the market; a 15.6% increase over August, and 27.6% year-over-year spike.

A Hastings 20 bedroom, 8 bathroom, fourplex was the new inventory market topper at $1,250,000. a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, Robbinsdale side by side offered an owner-occupant or investor a terrific value at $287,000.  Hopkins and Crystal offered the most opportunities, each contributing 4 new opportunities for buyers to choose from.

The suburbs saw 16 sales in September at an average price of $484,469 and median of $431,500. While prices were up over August, Septembers of 2024, 2020 and 2015, the total number of transactions was not. August saw 19 properties trade hands. And while last September saw just 11 sales, in 2020 that figure was 38 and in 2015, 24.

Larger supply and slowing sales resulted in sellers receiving 96.3% of their original list price. What’s more, they spent an average of 49 days on the market before selling. This was a 63.3% spike over August, and 257.9% jump over one year ago. Curiously, median days on market dropped to 25 from 31, but were also 277.8% higher than one year ago.

Columbia Heights lead the suburbs with 3 sold properties, followed by West St Paul and St Louis Park with two each. The high seller was a Columbia Heights fourplex with 12 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms, closing at $755,000. A 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house conversion duplex in West St Paul was the value of the month, closing at $325,000.

Small multifamily property sales are less impacted by seasons than single-family homes. Changes in the market are more likely the result of something other than cooling temperatures and falling leaves.