Housing News, Opinion, Statistics and Homes for Sale
Two of my clients this year have bought houses that were difficult to see. The first client was refused only the 1st time. The second was refused the first two times! In both cases the buyers had enough interest to try again but I can tell you that often isn’t the case. I would say about 50% of the time we don’t come back for a 2nd chance.
Sellers – It can be tough to be ready for every showing but know that it only takes one to sell the house!
In the last couple weeks I have been searching our local MLS for a couple different clients and find myself frustrated by the lack of information provided. Too many agents today still seem to get away with putting up a photo or two and the barest minimum of information. This makes it terribly difficult to locate properties for my clients in the first place and discard those that are not viable in the second.
Unfortunately there is no way to force agents to provide more than the bare minimum other than the clients of these agents. Until clients demand better work product from their agents, the bare minimum is all that will be provided by some. Grr!
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.
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.
