Local Real Estate News
From The Skinny
As winter continues its streak of cold and snow, sales activity in the Twin Cities housing market is moving along at a pace you'd expect for the season and at about the same pace as a year ago. Pending sales for the week ending January 30 came in at 650, down very slightly from the mark of 673 seen during the same week last year. Over the last three months, there have been 7,038 signed purchase agreements, up a sliver-sized 0.7 percent from a year ago.
Despite the tax credit being made available to current homeowners, new listing activity has yet to show any noticeable jump. The 1,584 new listings for the most recent reporting week represent a dip of 3.1 percent from a year ago. Total inventory of available homes is still down from last year by 16.5 percent.
In related news, Days on Market Until Sale is still dropping while the Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale is still growing. While that's good news on both fronts for home sellers in general, different price points and neighborhoods are experiencing dramatically different market conditions.
Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.
From The Skinny
The January 2010 Twin Cities housing market has shaped up to be nearly identical to January 2009.
- Pending sales are down slightly from a year ago, but not by much.
- New listings are down slightly from a year ago, but not much.
- Inventory is rising slowly, but not much.
After the roller coaster ride the local market has experienced over the last four years, perhaps "not by much" is a welcome respite.
- There were 558 signed purchase agreements for the week ending January 23, down 2.3 percent from a year ago.
- New listings posted 1,522 units, down 0.6 percent from a year ago.
- The current inventory of active listings is 20,629, down 17.5 percent from a year ago.
The February 2010 Supply-Demand Ratio sits at 6.99, which means there are 6.99 homes available for each buyer. That's a drop of 8.5 percent from a year ago and the lowest February mark since 2006.
Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.
From The Skinny
The first full week of reporting for the Twin Cities housing market is in and while there are a few "green shoots," it's becoming clear so far that the market won't see the same spectacular growth in sales it saw at the beginning of 2009.
There were 520 pending sales for the week ending January 9, down 1.7 percent from the same week in 2009. That's the seventh week of the last nine to see fewer sales than the prior year, a time period that coincides closely with the initial expiration date of the first-time home buyer tax credit. However, we’re still 21.2 percent higher than the pace in 2008 for that period.
As you likely know, the credit's been expanded to include a $6,500 incentive for buyers who have owned a home for five years of the last eight. Since we can safely assume that many of these buyers will need to sell their home first before buying a new one and receiving the credit, we can look to our new listings numbers to see how much effect the new credit is having. So far, it doesn't appear to be much.
Over the last three months, the number of new listings has been 11.7 percent behind the same period one year prior. With many looking for continued "seedlings" of hope in the local housing market, this isn't welcome news. As always, we'll be keeping a close eye on things and reporting back what we see.
Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.
From The Skinny
The January 2010 Housing Supply Outlook just hit the internetz. As usual, here's some quick takeaways on key market conditions.
5. Its a magic number. The last time there was only 5.0 months of supply or less in the Twin Cities housing market, the month was March of 2006. George Bush was president, Kanye West was known more for his talent than his eccentricities and the market was on the cusp of a 24-month slide in home sales and prices. Flash forward to January 2010, and we're back down to 5.0 months of supply.
The biggest drops in supply can be found the lower price ranges, where homes are selling quickly. For perspective, there's only 2.6 months of supply under $120,000, while there's 30.2 months of supply above $1 million.
Home prices are still soft across the board, but the largest declines in price in 2009 can be found in the condominium segment, where the average sales price for the year was 17.1 percent lower than in 2008.
