Twin Cities Home Buyers Forget to Take a Holiday

January 4, 2012 By 3 Comments

What are normally the coldest weeks in the real estate market are this year much warmer than normal, just like our weather.  We’ve seen huge year-over-year increases in Pending Sales for months now but the weeks ending 12/17 and 12/24 saw 48% more accepted purchase agreements than a year ago.  Those are numbers you just can’t ignore.  If/when the temperature drops will we see less buyer activity?  Time will soon tell… if buyer activity does fall then some of this can be chalked up to just the weather.  If it does not, this signals what could be a fundamental increase in buyer demand moving forward.

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

Twin Cities Foreclosures Hit 4+ Year Low

December 2, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In recent months a common phrase has been uttered by countless buyers and real estate agents: “where are all the foreclosures?”  Since August 2010 the Twin Cities Region has seen foreclosures for sale drop 52% from approximately 4000 to about 1900 today.  This is the first time since July 2007 that we have seen inventory this low.

 Twin Cities Homes for Sale

Based on data available as of December 2, 2011.  All data from Regional Multiple Listing Service, Inc. Powered by 10K Research and Marketing.

Traditional Seller inventory is at 7+ year lows and even short sales are declining in numbers too.  Many sellers that take their home off the market this time of year may want to reconsider – with less competition today than we’ve seen in many years the buyers have far fewer choices available.

I hear stories in my office every day from agents that are in multiple offers on a foreclosure with their buyer and in many cases they are selling over asking price.

While this does not signal an end to the foreclosure crisis, it is another positive indicator of our market coming back into balance and that in and of itself is a huge win.

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

Twin Cities Homes For Sale Inventory Hits 7 Year Low

November 10, 2011 By Leave a Comment

The Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS has just announced October’s housing numbers and surprises us with a whopper:  In October 2011 there were fewer homes for sale than any October since 2004!

 

The inventory of Twin Cities homes for sale has seen a progressive decline since its peak in 2007 and that decline I believe is likely to continue into 2012.  Many homeowners today that want to sell cannot because of the market and thus are staying put and not putting their homes on the market.  Further, with the large number of foreclosures and short sales sold in recent years, the number of “move up” buyers is greatly reduced since when a foreclosure or short sale sells there isn’t a new buyer created.

Home unit sales are still down significantly from 2004′s levels though so our housing supply is still not balanced, but it is getting closer and closer each month.  We will likely in fact swing to a statistical seller’s market in the next couple years, but I don’t see that as creating much upward pressure on prices but rather will put a good support in for the prices we are at.

Filed Under: Info for Buyers, Info for Sellers, Market Stats, Opinion

Minnesota Foreclosures in Q3 2011 Down 32% from Q3 2010

November 4, 2011 By 2 Comments

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 means we are out of the foreclosure mess, it is another sign that foreclosure activity continues to run well below the peaks of 2010.  Fewer sheriff sales today means fewer bank owned (REO) homes for sale 6-9 months from now.  Don’t get too optimistic though as the Minnesota Home Ownership Center’s data shows that pre-foreclosure activity did tick up in the most recent quarter.

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