Twin Cities Small Multifamily Market: 6-Month Supply Signals Shift Toward Buyers

Late summer is usually when many Minnesotans scramble to finish everything they meant to complete in June or July before the school year starts and the normal routine kicks back in. As a result, it is not atypical for the Twin Cities duplex, triplex and fourplex market to be a little slower, as people take one last trip to the lake or over-indulge at the Minnesota State Fair.

Compound that late-summer real estate malaise with a slowing real estate market in general, and the result is 477 active duplex, triplex and fourplex listings across the seven-county metro area; the most in over a decade. Of these, 159 properties were new to the market; down from July’s 170, and up slightly from last August’s 151.

Minneapolis contributed 89 new listings to the total, with St Paul adding 39. A St Paul Summit-University neighborhood fourplex with 8 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms topped the month’s new offerings at $1.2 million. A St Paul Payne-Phalen Victorian house conversion with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms in need of substantial rehab offeres a winter project for someone at $150,000.

The key to swelling active listings is fewer sales. Seventy-four sellers turned over the keys to their properties last month; down 22 from July, and 9 year-over-year.

However, there was some good news for sellers. Of the closed sales, sellers averaged final prices that were 99.4% of their original list price. This was a slight improvement over July’s 99% and well within striking distance of last August’s 99.5%. These transactions resulted in an average sales price of $437,180 and a median of $409,500.

Properties spent an average of 36 days on the market before selling, and a median of 19 days. This average was down 7 days from July and up just 1 day from August 2025.  When factoring days a property may have accrued if it was previously listed without selling, the average cumulative days on market totalled 47. This was down 10 from last August, and a drop of 14 days from July.

The month’s high seller was an off-market duplex in Minneapolis’ Linden Hills neighborhood. The 5 bedroom, 3 bath duplex fetched $825,000 for the sellers. The month’s value-add opportunity was in St Paul’s West 7th neighborhood, where a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom house conversion in need of extensive rehab closed for $150,000.

August posted a 6 month supply of inventory, suggesting a bit of a buyer’s market like we saw over the winter. The month tallied 127 metro duplexes, triplexes and fourplexes leave the market without selling.

Fall’s small multifamily market is typically strong, so it is not unrealistic to hope for things to pick up as we get back into a regular routine.