The National Association of REALTORS has put together a video discussing the amount and type of 'Shadow Inventory' nationally. The biggest problem with such figures is that they are still based off of sampling & definitions of what is or is not counted in the definition. Regardless of what the actual number is, the video discusses how banks are putting more focus on short sales than they have in the past - which I believe to be a much better option than letting these properties go through the entire … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Pending Home Sales Continue Drop
June 8, 2010 by Leave a Comment
Last week I discussed the precipitous drop in Twin Cities Pending Home Sales activity. Today MAAR released another week's activity report and the extended drop in buyer activity continues. While we had a few more pending sales than the week prior, we're still 34.6% below the same week last year. This great disparity is no doubt the continued hangover from the expiration of the tax credit but this hangover is quickly becoming a wicked one. These are historically the busiest weeks of the year and instead our … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Real Estate Rollercoaster
June 3, 2009 by Leave a Comment
Betsy Soderlund wants the emotional roller coaster that is the Minneapolis real estate market to be less like the cork screw and more like the flume. - @betsysoderlund This Twitter post last night sums up what many people in the real estate market are feeling right now. Things seem to be going up, down, left, right and twisting all at the same time. This is a list of the items I currently see as affecting everyone's psychological health in the real estate market today: REO's/REO Brokers I've talked at length … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Real Estate Sales Climbing
November 25, 2008 by Leave a Comment
While the median sales price of homes in the Twin Cities continues to fall, there is some great news to be had as well. No, this market downturn/correction/bubble burst/armageddeon/etc. isn't over yet but there are some fundamentals that need to change before the market can turn around and several have or are close to changing. Pending Sales took a nice turn above 2007 sales volume in August and have stayed above the year-prior figures even with the loss of 0% down financing on October 1 and the recently … [Read more...]
Loose Lending Broke Housing, Tight Lending Keeps it Broken
June 20, 2008 by 7 Comments
The several years of "loose lending" by mortgage lenders helped bring a surge of bad loan programs with borrowers that were either overextended from Day One or should have been unqualified to begin with. This surge has now become a tsunami of foreclosures and short sales, which Jeff Allen and I have lumped together as the term: "Lender Mediated Sales." Now that lenders, banks, retirement funds, investment bankers, average investors and everyone else have all been bitten by the fallout from this housecological … [Read more...]
May 2008 Twin Cities Market Stats
June 12, 2008 by Leave a Comment
MAAR has released their new market stats for the month of May and I'm trying a new idea: I've added commentary to the report expressing what I believe are the important "take aways" from the data. I would love to get feedback both on the concept and your thoughts of my opinion. Minneapolis/St. Paul Real Estate Market Stats for May 2008 with commentary. … [Read more...]
Here comes statistics in a video
June 2, 2008 by Leave a Comment
Jeff Allen @ the Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS,�my good pal after the months of working on the Lender Mediated Sales Report together, has started what looks to become a once-a-month summary video of the highlights from the MAAR reports. Granted the info discussed is all the positive stuff, but hey, that's what a good marketing campaign is all about. … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Housing Inventory Down vs. Last Year
May 19, 2008 by Leave a Comment
Since early this year, the Twin Cities housing market has been making strong gains towards a level of what I call "peak inventory." What I'm describing as peak inventory is the point where we see the number of houses for sale today at a level lower than last year. Well, we officially hit that in the weekly market report dated 5/5/2008 and are continuing that trend the last two weeks as well. What does this mean? There's approximately 600 fewer homes for sale today than there was a year ago and if current trends … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Affordability Hits Highest Level in Nearly 4 Years!
February 14, 2008 by Leave a Comment
With the release of this week's Weekly Market Activity Report we find that the Twin Cities Housing Affordability Index hit a near 4-year high! The Housing Affordability Index takes into account interest rates, area median income, and median home sales price. With both sales prices and interest rates falling recently, we find the Index has increased quite substantially in recent months. Interest rates remain well below 6% and there are a lot of new houses coming on the market this time of year. While it … [Read more...]
Declining Market Takes a Bigger Bite
February 8, 2008 by Leave a Comment
I heard from my loan officer Thursday that between the lenders marking zip codes as "declining market," and Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac doing the same thing, and appraisers noting it more and more as well, nearly all markets in the Twin Cities have been marked as a declining market or are likely to be hit by it soon. In nearly all circumstances, this means that a 0% down buyer will need 5% down and a 5% down buyer will need 10% down. For anyone with 10% down or more there is no change. FHA loans in many … [Read more...]
