Twin Cities Real Estate Market Update

This information is courtesy of the Minneapolis Association of Realtors for the week ending 5/1/2010.  Much of this information is compiled from the MLS MN.

As the weather warms and the end of the federal government tax credit winds down everyone is waiting with baited breath to see what the real estate market will bring us.  Some experts are predicting that the market will tank, others are saying it will be solid.  What is really going to happen is anyone’s guess at this point.  Let’s review some stats for last week.

New listings last week were down both week over week and year over year.  The number of new listings hitting the market is below 2000 for the first time since February.  Although I would like to say this signals something, with only 1 week of data, it doesn’t make a trend.  We will continue to monitor.

Pending sales were up dramatically both year over year and from the previous week by over 30%.  I suspect much of this can be attributed to home buyers rushing to capture the federal tax credit prior to expiration (which was April 30).  The number of pending sales was the highest in 2010 and almost double that of February.  The number (1469) is actually the highest we have seen since April 2005.

Active listings for sale have remained relatively constant since April 1, but have increased by almost 20% since the first of the year.  We are hovering around the average for the last couple years.  The increase is mostly seasonal adjustments coming out of the winter.

Days on market until sale continue to fall and have been falling since 2008.  We are now down to 127 days on the market for April 2010, which is a 15.3% decrease year over year for that same week.

Pricing your home for sale at the correct price is crucial to getting it sold.  But, even when you do price it correctly, buyers will often make lower offers if they sense they are in a buyer’s market.  Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale has rebounded slightly after a dip this winter.  We are currently averaging around 93%.

Currently there are 5.69 house per buyer in the market.  This is called the supply demand ratio.  We have seen it as high as 12, but May was close to the low of 4.39 in April.  Months of supply of homes is also an idicator of the health of the real estate market.  From a high of 11 months of inventory in the summer of 2008 to a low of 5 months in January 2010, we have increase slightly as banks are releasing new properties onto the market, faster than they can be absorbed.

Much of this real estate market data was compiled from the Minnesota MLS.

Tagged: homes, housing, Minneapolis, Minnesota MLS, mls mn, mn mls, real estate, twin cities