Big or Small High School? How Rising Inventory Is Reshaping the Twin Cities Duplex Market

I often tell my clients that the amount of duplex, triplex, and fourplex inventory on the Twin Cities market at any given time is like a high school.

If you’re a seller and there aren’t many properties on the market, it is like attending a small high school. If you want to be class president, you may have to be nice to people. And if you want to be the starting quarterback, you might need to jog a bit over the summer. It might not take much more, because there simply isn’t as much competition.

When you transfer to a large high school, however, you need to up your game. You might need to actually orchestrate a campaign or at least make a poster in your effort to become class president. You may even need to get some coaching, practice, and lift weights if you don’t want to ride the bench some fall.

Where am I going with this?

When there is more competition, meaning more active inventory, it’s like a big high school. While buyers might make do with what’s available when there’s little to choose from, when they have more options, they’re willing to put up with less.

And we are entering a large high school duplex market.

In May, there were more active duplex, triplex and fourplex listings for buyers to choose from in Minneapolis, St Paul and the surrounding 7 counties than in any other month in a decade.  In fact, the 403 properties buyers had to choose from represented an increase of 14.4% year-over-year in inventory.

This was in part, a result of 202 new listings coming onto the market; the most in a month since April, 2022. As usual, Minneapolis contributed the most to the total with 106, followed by St Paul with 51.  A 5 bedroom, 4 bathroom triplex in Minneapolis’ Linden Hills neighborhood topped the new offereings at $1,895,000. A 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house conversion duplex in the McKinley neighborhood was the month’s value-play at $140,900.

May also saw 91 small multifamily properties get new owners. A robust average sales price of $463,566 and median of $449,000, both of which were an average of 98.8% the  original asking price suggests sellers did a good job distinguishing themselves either as best in class or best value. The region saw a 4 month supply of inventory, menaing if no new listings came on the market, at our current rate of sales, we’d be sold out in 4 months. That favors sellers, but perhaps not to of two or three years ago.

Minneapolis had the most sales in May, with 38, followed by St Paul, with 21. However, an 8 bedroom, 4 bathroom fourplex in St Paul’s Merriam Park/Lexington neighborhood topped the market metrowide, closing at $1,175,000. A 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom triplex in the city’s St Anthony Park neighborhood provided a chance to earn some sweat equity at $175,000.

If you’re thinking about selling, the market is still good. The number of active duplex, triplex and fourplex listings typically grows through late summer. That means you may have to put a little bit of effort into it. You likely don’t need to replace the kitchens, but you may want to at least remove the volunteers and saplings you didn’t actually plant in the flower bed.