I've been a part of the HomeServices of America family for almost 10 years now. While Edina Realty does hold several company-wide events each year, this only brings into the fold the few thousands of agents in Minnesota and Western Wisconsin. While HomeServices has companies in 18 states and is the 2nd largest real estate brokerage in the country, there has not been a national convention to attend to meet new people, get new ideas, and to feel part of the bigger family. Now that Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Preforeclosure Notices at 2nd Lowest Since 2009
October 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
More good news for the Twin Cities Housing Market. The Minnesota Home Ownership Center just released their Q3 2012 preforeclosure data. While there was a slight uptick in notices for the third quarter, the numbers are still down a healthy amount from recent quarters and are sitting at just over half of their peak levels. This continues my mantra that we'll have elevated numbers of foreclosures and short sales for some time but that the worst is behind us. And in case you are wondering what is … [Read more...]
Twin Cities’ Record Low Housing Inventory Poised To Drop Further
October 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The Twin Cities real estate market continues to improve at a stronger pace than most industry insiders expected, including myself. Buyers have been coming out of the woodwork to take advantage of all time record low interest rates - one of my clients just locked in a 2.875% 30yr FIXED FHA loan! Historically in the Twin Cities, Sellers like to hibernate until after the first of the year and so the available inventory of homes for sale in the Twin Cities drops dramatically from its summer highs to its winter … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Home Prices – A Couple Thoughts
September 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
2012 has been surprising in how strong the buyer activity has been and also how much home prices have moved up. Certainly a much stronger year than I was expecting. While every metric used to summarize home prices has its faults, my favorite stat the last 18 months is Average Price Per Square Foot for Traditional Sales: This chart shows why I think is a more accurate view of our housing market tumble: prices were almost consistently falling except for the period during the tax credit expiration in 2010. … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Housing Market’s Record Low Inventory Continues to Decline
September 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
The housing market in the Twin Cities is quickly turning from a buyer's market into a seller's market. As the inventory of homes for sale continues to drop off a cliff, buyers are having to settle for less than the perfect home or pay more for the one they want. For buyers who have heard stories from their friends and family that have bought in the last couple years, this is coming as quite a shock. Homes for sale in the Twin Cities has dropped an astounding 31% in the last 12 months and is continuing … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Foreclosure Forecast: Fewer Foreclosures in 2013
August 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
I'm a huge data nerd. I stare at charts and data almost daily to get a better sense of what's going on in the housing market. One of the more interesting datasets I look at is foreclosure activity. Between the preforeclosure notices published by the Minnesota Home Ownership Center, the sheriff sale data published by HousingLink and the MLS foreclosure sales from MAAR, we can build a very good picture of foreclosure activity over the last few years: But this data can do more than just show current … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Home Sales on Strongest Pace in 6 Years
August 8, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Wither further proof that the Twin Cities home prices have bottomed, the first 7 months of 2012 have seen the highest number of homes sold in the last six years! Let's stop and think about that for a moment. While the economy is still slowly on the mend and in a time where financing qualification requirements are tougher than they have been in a decade, we're seeing enormous demand by home buyers. Some of this activity is certainly investors coming in to pick up investment properties at decade-low prices … [Read more...]
Minnesota Preforeclosure Notices Drop 25%
August 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment
My friends at the Minnesota Home Ownership Center released an update to their preforeclosure stats today that show preforeclosure notices are down 25% from a year ago and 17% from last quarter: This is great news at it signals even fewer foreclosures for Minnesota in the future. Preforeclosure notices typically go out 2-6 months before a sheriff sale occurs. Thus with this information, I can project out into 2013 and tell you that even fewer foreclosures will be for sale in the next 8-12 months than … [Read more...]
5 Ways Low Inventory Will Save The Housing Market
July 30, 2012 by 2 Comments
As the number of homes for sale continues to decline in many areas across the country, more and more people are saying the lack of inventory is becoming detrimental to the housing market. I will submit to you that its effect is exactly opposite. #1 - Higher Offers While inventory is declining buyer activity is still very strong and thus many houses are now garnering multiple offers. As I've said before, the second there is more than one offer on the table, an offer negotiation turns into an auction. In my … [Read more...]
Dispelling a Couple Financing Myths
July 27, 2012 by 1 Comment
It seems that at least once per week someone prominent who should know better will go on TV and say that you need a 20% down payment to buy a home. That is total crap. FHA loans with 3.5% down payment are still available and I see loan officers offering Conventional loans with 5%, 10% and 15% down every day too. If you happen to be a qualifying Veteran or live in a rural area, you may even qualify for a 0% down loan. The other thing I hear at least once a week from these "experts" is that you need cash to … [Read more...]
