The Median Sales Price of homes sold in the Twin Cities in June 2012 climbed to $179,500, which is a two year high.
Data comes from the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Powered by 10K Research and Marketing.
The Median Sales Price has jumped 10.8% in the last 12 months! While this is all good news, the reality is that the Median Sales Price is heavily influenced by what sells in a given month.
One major trend in the last 12 months has been the increase in Traditional Seller properties selling:
Data comes from the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Powered by 10K Research and Marketing.
Since Traditional Seller homes are in better condition and sell for higher prices than foreclosures and short sales, when more of them sell, it skews prices higher.
Another variable that can skew things are the type of housing: condos, townhouses and single family homes. Since these houses can vary widely in their square footage, as more of one or another sell it too can create skewed data.
While it isn’t perfect either, my favorite metric to watch in the last few years has been Average Price Per Square Foot by Foreclosure Status. This takes into account both of the difficulties above:
Data comes from the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc. Data deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Powered by 10K Research and Marketing.
I truly believe this chart provides the greatest accuracy of what’s happened to home values in our market over the last 7 years. Other than the artificial upward blip in house prices during the home buyer tax credit of 2010, price were on a continued downward slide for 5 years before bottoming in the 2nd half of 2011.
As you can see since January 2012, home values are showing a significant improvement across foreclosures, short sales and traditional sellers. This is all happening at a time of tougher borrowing standards and a tough economy… which makes this improvement that much more meaningful.
Each month the market statistics continue to show that the Twin Cities real estate market has bottomed. Look for more of the same in the coming months as homes for sale continue their decline and buyer demand continues to surpass last year’s.
