I hear buyers, sellers, lenders, real estate agents and the community as a whole rhetorically ask when we'll see the housing market recover. Unfortunately putting a timeline on a housing recovery is pretty unrealistic as there are simply too many variables to account for. But all is not lost! While I cannot predict when the housing market will recover, I can give you trends to watch for that will signal a turnaround and their current indicators. Falling Inventory Supply & Demand 101: if demand has fallen … [Read more...]
Price Per Square Foot – Lender-Mediated vs Traditional Sellers
May 6, 2008 by 1 Comment
As a follow-up to the report I co-authored with Jeff Allen from MAAR, below is a comparison of price per finished square foot between lender-mediated sales and traditional sales. As can be seen by the chart above, there is a substantial price discount on a cost per square foot basis when you look at lender mediated sales. My reasoning for why this is happening is as follows: Short Sales Short sale transactions often take several months to come together, thereby reducing the number of buyers willing to deal … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Mortgage Rates Fall
March 22, 2008 by Leave a Comment
On Friday my loan officers were quoting rates on 30yr fixed mortgages in the 5.5% - 6% range again... which is down more than .5% from just a couple weeks ago. On a $200,000 house, that means a monthly payment that is more than $80 less than it was just 2 weeks before. Or in other terms, it would be like taking $13,000 off the price of a $200,000 home. … [Read more...]
Twin Cities Real Estate Affordability Hits 34 Month High
December 10, 2007 by Leave a Comment
The Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS released their weekly market report today with new Housing Affordability Index numbers for December 2007. The HAI of 141 is the highest we've seen in the Twin Cities since February 2005... nearly 3 years ago. Falling mortgage rates, with many brokers quoting under 6% for a 30-year fixed), and lower sales prices has improved affordability by over 10% in just 3 months! With mortgage rates and home prices down, the market is starting to look better for 1st time buyers … [Read more...]
