I recently had a long term blog reader contact me to see some homes. While they had been reading my articles regularly, when we actually got out into the market and started looking at homes in their price point, they were shocked at just how much the market had changed.
In many price points in many parts of the Twin Cities, homes are flying off the market with demand at levels we haven’t seen since the housing boom ended in 2005/2006. Many buyers are being caught off guard in what has been a far sharper recovery than almost anyone predicted. While we’re seeing more listings come in to the market now, the inventory levels in many neighborhoods are still very low historically and will likely remain so through the rest of the year.
I am not the guy to over hype the market. I try to give you as fair and honest of an assessment of the housing market as I can because I feel the facts speak for themselves. It is becoming clear to me however that many potential home buyers still don’t know how strong the market has become and thus conversely, many potential home sellers are in the same position.
As long as mortgage rates remain reasonable and the economy in Minnesota continues to improve, we’re likely to continue to see very strong buyer demand and lots of competition for the best homes for sale and a continued increase in home prices.
As more home owners come to realize the market demand and as home equity continues to increase, we’ll see more sellers come into the market and help bring things back into balance. The strong ups and downs that we’ve seen since the turn of the century are very un-Minnesotan. More stable times are ahead but it’s going to be crazytown for a while yet.
