Twin Cities Duplex Buyers Gain Leverage as Inventory Hits 7 Months
If you’ve been thinking about buying a Twin Cities duplex to owner-occupy or as an investment property but have held off because there was little to choose from, you didn’t want to be in multiple offers, or even, you couldn’t imagine buying a property without an inspection, you may want to to start shopping.
For the second consecutive month, the 7-county metro area, including Minneapolis and St. Paul, posted a 7-month supply of inventory. It was the third month to do so this year.
Any time there’s more than a 6-month supply of inventory, we are in a buyer’s market.
A note of caution: that doesn’t mean duplexes are selling at 50 cents on the dollar. In fact, the 72 properties that traded hands in September did so at a price that was 97.7% of the seller’s original asking price. September’s closings obtained an average closing price of $403,997 and a median of $386,000.
The month’s market topper was an 8-bedroom, 4-bathroom triplex in Minneapolis’ East Isles neighborhood that fetched $740,000. A 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom house conversion with deferred maintenance offered a sweat equity opportunity to the buyer, closing at $155,000.
Sold properties spent a cumulative average of 66 days on the market before selling and a median of 33 days. This figured dropped to a median of 25 days and average of 40 when any previously accumulated market time was removed from the count.
Minneapolis lead the way with 26 small multifamily transactions, followed by St Paul with 419.
September’s 179 new duplex, triplex and fourplex listings were the most for the month since 2021, and represented the third-highest September for new inventory in a decade.
Here too, Minneapolis topped market activity with 84 new listings. St Paul finished with 49. A rare Linden Hills ‘ Jordan neighborhood fourplex with 9 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms topped the market, listing for $1,150,000. A 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom old corner store converted to a duplex in Minneapolis offered cash flow to its buyer at a sales price of $155,000.
Finally, in yet another sign of a shifted market, 155 duplex, triplex and fourplex listings expired off the market without selling. This was the largest total for any month other than December since October 2022.
These shifts in the market can mean buyers have more time to consider whether or not to write an offer, and even conduct an inspection.