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Twin Cities Home Prices – A Couple Thoughts

September 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Chart compliments of MAAR, data from RMLS of Minnesota

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...]

Filed Under: Blog, Crystal Ball Projections, Featured Blog Posts, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats

Twin Cities Housing Market’s Record Low Inventory Continues to Decline

September 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Twin Cities Housing Market Inventory - August 2012

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...]

Filed Under: Blog, Featured Blog Posts, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats, Opinion

Twin Cities Foreclosure Forecast: Fewer Foreclosures in 2013

August 29, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Twin Cities Foreclosure Activity

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...]

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

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

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...]

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

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...]

Filed Under: Featured Blog Posts, Foreclosures and Short Sales, Info for Buyers, Mortgage Guidelines, Mortgage Rates, special financing

Twin Cities Home Prices Continue Climb

July 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Median Sales Price of homes sold in the Twin Cities in June 2012 climbed to $179,500, which is a two year high. 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: Since Traditional Seller homes are in better condition and sell for higher prices than … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Blog Posts, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats, Statistics

Zillow’s Stats Are Full Of Shit

June 20, 2012 by 2 Comments

For years I have been frustrated with Zillow's Zestimates.  I have countless cases where the sales prices of homes were wildly different than the Zestimates.  They cause confusion and frustration every time I hear them brought up.  Today was a breaking point. Even today, many years after they first started playing pin the price on the donkey, in my market they are STILL only within 10% of the sales price 53% of the time and 22% of the time, or over one in every five homes, they are off by more than 20%! … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Featured Blog Posts, Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats, Opinion, Useless Ramblings Tagged With: , ,

Twin Cities Foreclosures Plummet

June 19, 2012 by 1 Comment

Where have all the foreclosures gone?  In the Twin Cities, foreclosure inventory is nearly half of what it was just a year ago and down nearly 60% since its peak: Twin Cities Foreclosures Listed on the MLS Why have they declined so much?  Well first of all, demand for foreclosures has been and continues to remain high from both traditional buyers as well as investors.  The more important trend however is the decreasing supply of new foreclosures due to lower numbers of sheriff sales: Sheriff Sales in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Crystal Ball Projections, Featured Blog Posts, Info for Buyers, Market Stats, Statistics

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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.