Quick Home Search

By searching, you agree to the EULA

Cash Buyers Nearly 30% of All February Twin Cities Home Sales

March 30, 2011 by 2 Comments
4 up

February 2011 saw a new record for the percentage of homes sold to cash buyers: a whopping 28.3% of all homes that closed in the month were purchased with cash.  Further, it also represents the largest number of units sold to cash buyers for the month of February: 624 homes sold in February 2011 to cash buyers, versus 514 homes during the same time last year and 438 in February 2009.While some people complain about cash buyers (the majority are investors buying for rental or rehab & resale) competing with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Foreclosures and Short Sales, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, investors, Market Stats Tagged With:

Stupidly Slow Short Sales That Seldom Sell

March 16, 2011 by 2 Comments
short sales msp

Here we are, years into the housing crisis, and it seems like while banks have become pretty good at selling foreclosures they are still horrible at closing short sales.  On average, short sales a have substantially lower chance of closing than traditional or bank owned listings, which means a huge number of short sales fail and go back to the bank as foreclosures.  At the end of the day, short sales sell for far more money than they do as an equivalent foreclosure so each failed short sale means thousands or … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Foreclosures and Short Sales, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats, Opinion, Personal Experiences, Short Sales Tagged With:

Richfield's Vacant Building Registration Program

March 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

The City of Richfield is currently considering a lengthy and wide-reaching ordinance regarding vacant buildings - both residential and commercial.  This issue has come up in many cities recently but this proposed ordinance is one of the most aggressive ones I have seen.  Please read the proposed ordinance here.Cities across the country today are dealing with large numbers of foreclosures and with that come problem properties for the cities to deal with - which costs time and money and also affects the surrounding … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Foreclosures and Short Sales, Neighborhood Info, Opinion, Personal Experiences

Houses Selling Out From Under Buyers

March 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

Twice this week I have had buyers preparing to write an offer on a home they had seen in the last few days and we find out that an offer was just accepted.  In both cases we knew these houses were awesome values the second we stepped in to them.  Yup, the Spring Market is quickly coming upon us and that means more buyers going after those few choice properties.While it is next to impossible for us to sell as many homes in the next few months as we did this time last year (when the tax credit was just about to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crystal Ball Projections, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Personal Experiences, Pictures!

Cheap Mortgages Are Gone!

February 16, 2011 by 3 Comments

The last few months have really seen a change in the cost of borrowing money for a home.  Here's what has happened: Interest rates have moved from 4.3% in November to 5% today The interest rate increase of .7% in just a few months' time dramatically affects the qualification amounts for buyers and has a strong impact on monthly payment.  Buying power could be reduced approximately $15,000 on a $200,000 loan or the payment may go up by around $80 per … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Crystal Ball Projections, Info for Buyers, Market Stats

Twin Cities Sellers Taking a Vacation

February 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Twin Cities Homes for Sale

So each January we see home seller activity increase, bringing more new listings on the market than can be absorbed by buyers at this time of year.  Well this year things seem to be starting different - new listing activity is down almost 20% since the first of the year! This leads us to the following chart of Twin Cities homes for sale: The 10% surplus of homes for sale versus the same period last year has now become a 1% deficit in just the last 45 days!  Inventory as of February 14th, 2011 was only 1.6% … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crystal Ball Projections, Foreclosures and Short Sales, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats

Those Damn Ice Dams!

February 14, 2011 by 1 Comment

Monday was a day full of stories from fellow agents about ice dams at their listings and from the ice dam that clogged our roof drain and caused our roof to leak in about 1/2 dozen places in the building and created standing water in several spots. Most of the houses that are suffering from water damage from ice dams this winter have problems not with their roof but with their insulation - a properly insulated (and vented) attic shouldn't see the ice buildup that creates most leaks.  The older your house is the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Energy Efficiency, Personal Experiences

Traditional Seller Prices Rise, Foreclosure Prices Plummet

February 12, 2011 by 1 Comment
Median Sales Price - Foreclosures, Short Sales, Traditional Sales

You have Zillow, Trulia, Case/Shiller, the National Association of REALTORS and the Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS and many others all release housing statistics that are then mentioned by local media. The beauty of today is that we have more information than we have ever had before - the problem with today is that a lot of that information is useless or misleading when talking about an individual house, a block or a neighborhood.  See, housing isn't just a local thing... it is a hyper-local thing.  I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Foreclosures and Short Sales, Info for Buyers, Market Stats, Short Sales Tagged With: , ,

1 in 4 Twin Cities Homes Bought With Cash in January

February 11, 2011 by 1 Comment

There a lot of data in this month's housing numbers and I am still trying to digest it all.  One of the more notable items however is that 27% of all closed sales in January 2011 were paid for in cash.  Think about that for a minute: one out of every four homes was either bought by an investor or someone with deep pockets.  For comparison, cash buyers made up only 4% - 5% (1 in 20) of sales in 2006 and 2007 but had risen to 22% (1 in 5) of sales by the 2nd half of 2010. Cash buyers are often able to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Foreclosures and Short Sales, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, investors, Market Stats

Listing 101: Staging Your Home to Sell

February 10, 2011 by 8 Comments

By guest blogger Eric Bramlett Are you preparing to put your home on the market? If so, it is essential for you to do everything possible to make your stand out from among the other homes that are on the market. In fact, since we are in the midst of a buyer's market, leaving a positive impression on the buyer has never been more important than it is right now. Fortunately, there are several things that you can do to make your home stand out without having to spend a whole lot of money. In some cases, the best … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Info for Sellers Tagged With:

Disclaimer

TwinCitiesRealEstateBlog.com is not a Multiple Listing Service MLS, nor does it offer MLS access.
This website is a service of Aaron Dickinson of Edina Realty, a broker Participant of the Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc.