Quick Home Search

By searching, you agree to the EULA

Housing Market’s Virtuous Cycle

May 6, 2013 by Leave a Comment
The Housing Market Virtuous Cycle

The housing market has come roaring back in many markets throughout the U.S. and some have been questioning whether the surge of activity we're seeing has staying power. In many markets, from 2008 through much of 2012 we saw that nearly half of home sales were of foreclosed or short sale properties.  What we're seeing now is a return back to the Traditional Seller as foreclosure and short sale inventory declines sharply. What's crucial about this return to a more normal market is that in a Traditional Sale, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Blog, Community Issues, Featured Blog Posts, Foreclosures and Short Sales, Housing Analysis, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats, Opinion Tagged With:

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...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Featured Blog Posts, Housing Analysis, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats

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...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Crystal Ball Projections, Featured Blog Posts, Foreclosures and Short Sales, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats

Deception Is Not Our Code

February 27, 2012 by 3 Comments
realtor-logo

The following story intentionally leaves out details of the parties involved due to the fact that my knowledge of the story is indirect and thus I don't know all the facts. Today I heard a story about an agent & seller that reduced a property's price by more than 50% in an effort to drum up tons of buyer interest and get a crush of offers via sealed bid due in a couple weeks.  The agent telling the story to me said at least 3 agents in his office had buyers inquire on this property and the overall reaction … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Ethics, Opinion

Minnesota Home Foreclosures Dropped 17% in 2011

February 24, 2012 by Leave a Comment
2011 Minnesota Sheriff Sales Map

The Minnesota Home Ownership Center and others published a report created by HousingLink that details the sheriff sale activity in Minnesota for 2011.  We saw sheriff sales decline a substantial 17% to the lowest level since 2007: The far northern metro has continued to be the hardest hit area of Minnesota, though this was also one of the fastest growing areas of the state during the housing boom and it is clear these are related: While we are still at very high levels of foreclosure, this is yet … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats

Condos Losing FHA Approval Risk Losing Much More

February 16, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Over the last few years I've encountered more and more condominium projects that have lost their FHA project approval and have written on the issue before.  What does it mean when a project loses approval?  Buyers in those developments will not be able to secure FHA financing for their purchase.  In 2011, approximately 9% of all condo sales were financed by the buyers using FHA financing. 9% seems small, right?  Well yes it is relatively small, but since there are currently 6.5 months of supply of condos … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Community Issues, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Mortgage Guidelines

Shadow Inventory – The Housing Market’s Boogieman

February 1, 2012 by 4 Comments
boogieman

April 2013 Update: These words are as true today as they were a year ago. For years now we've been hearing housing "experts" talk about the shadow housing inventory.  This is apparently all the distressed housing backlog that has yet to make its way through the system. Depending on who you talk to, it may or may not include homeowners that are underwater (but current), people who have jobs now but might not later, or people who will decide to default just because everyone else is (the "herd … [Read more...]

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

The Twin Cities Housing Market Has Bottomed

January 17, 2012 by 5 Comments
MHP 2x4 Report - Rental Chart

After years of price declines, today I am here to say that the Twin Cities housing market has bottomed. Having sold houses for the last nine years I can tell you I've seen both the up and the dramatic down of our market... it has been quite the theme park ride!  I think we are all sick of the real estate roller coaster and would prefer to enjoy a little "lazy river" type housing market for a while - one that ebbs and flows but without the steep drops or climbs of our recent past. I've spent years looking at many … [Read more...]

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

Foreclosures and Short Sales Now Worth the Same

January 9, 2012 by 2 Comments
Twin Cities Average Price Per Square Foot

Since the housing downturn has started, short sales always have always commanded a higher price per square foot.  Well that has now changed.  Median Sales Prices are also quickly coming together as well.  The rule of thumb in the past was that short sales were often in better condition than a bank owned and so commanded a premium.  Today we see that foreclosures are often being cleaned up and thus the condition isn't as different.  We also have a buyer pool that has heard all the horror stories of trying to … [Read more...]

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

Minnesota Foreclosures in Q3 2011 Down 32% from Q3 2010

November 4, 2011 by 2 Comments
q3 2011 housinglink report

This just in from HousingLink:There were 4,935 foreclosures in Minnesota in Q3 of 2011, down 32% from Q3 2010. Q3 2011 marks four consecutive quarters with fewer than 6,000 statewide foreclosures.  While this follows four quarters in which the statewide count exceeded that number, the Q3 2011 figure of 4,935 still far exceeds the 1,618 foreclosures averaged in 2005, the first year sheriff sale records were totaled for the state of Minnesota.Below is a chart from their very detailed report:While this in no way … [Read more...]

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