ASID home 2008

Having grown up in this amazing city, we love nothing more than to see people putting money and efforts into restoring some of the city’s finest homes. For this reason, we are so excited about the recent project by the American Society of Interior Design (ASID) that brought together over 120 interior designers, contractors and architects in a massive restoration of a Lake Harriet home. The 7,300 square foot home, located at 4300 Fremont Avenue South, was completely gutted and brought back to it’s original charm with a contemporary influence.

Through June 15th there will be concerts, fundraisers, cooking classes and home tours, both guided and self-guided, at the home. Click on the link to find out more about the project.

SOLD

A couple weeks ago, we had a two bedroom townhome come on the market in Eden Prairie. The house is in great condition in a very nice and conveniently located neighborhood. We had an open house two days after it came on the market and had close to twenty parties come through. And guess what…the house sold the following Tuesday for over 98 percent of the list price.

The market may not be as strong as previous years, but houses that are in good condition, in good locations, and priced appropriately are selling as quickly as they always have. 

And of course it doesn’t hurt if you have a stellar agent, or agents, as the case may be (hint, hint).

Lender-mediated properties and the Minneapolis housing market

It is no secret that the Minneapolis housing market has seen a great increase in short sale and foreclosed properties in the past couple of years. More properties are being repossessed by mortgage lenders and sold in “lender-mediated” sales in the form of short sales or foreclosures. MAAR, the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, released findings earlier this month on a study examining the impact of lender-mediated sales on area-wide sales prices.

According to the data collected by MAAR, lender-mediated sales represented 2.9 percent of the market share in the first quarter of 2006. This number rose to 7.1 percent in the first quarter of 2007 and jumped to 21.7 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

“This higher market share places a heavy downward weight on aggregate sales price figures, giving many the erroneous impression that the housing market in its entirety is seeing massive declines in value. In reality, the lender-mediated market and the traditional seller market are experiencing stark differences.

As has been widely reported in recent months (including in our own research products), the median sales prices of Twin Cities homes in the first quarter of 2008 were 10.3 percent below the first quarter of 2007—a sizeable and conspicuous decline. But lost in the hub-bub—and partly because no one had the data until now—is that if foreclosures and short sales are removed from the data, the traditional sales market saw only a 3.9 percent decline during the same time period.

…So while both housing segments are experiencing declining home values as the market sits in the buyer’s favor, traditional properties are not experiencing the same level of decline as is commonly presumed and reported.”
Click here to view the MAAR report in its entirety.

Foreclosure and Short Sale in Layman’s Terms

A foreclosure happens when an owner defaults on their mortgage payment, and the lender or lienholder (often the bank) initiates the sale of the property, against the wishes of the owner, so that the unpaid mortgage on the property can be paid off by the proceeds of the sale.

A short sale occurs when a lender is willing to accept a loss on the amount of the original loan in order to prevent the foreclosure process from taking place. In this instance, the selling party would remain the home owner instead of the bank, or lending party. However, in a short sale situation, the bank has an opportunity to either approve or disapprove the proposed offer. A bank will often allow a short sale to avoid the foreclosure process from occurring, as it is both expensive and time consuming. A short sale is favorable to the home owner because it does not have a negative impact on their credit history.

You can find a more detailed definition by clicking on the following links:

Link to more information on foreclosures.

Link to more information on short sales.

Short sale and foreclosed properties, or, What is the deal with the banks?

We have been looking at short sales and foreclosed properties in the far western metro area and we have found that a lot of the properties have three to five offers on them. Many times the bank has had these offers for over four weeks. This means that there are three to five ready, willing, and able buyers waiting on the same home. And only one of them is going to be able to purchase it. Meanwhile, these potential buyers have often put their search on hold while their offer is being held by the bank. If the waiting time for a short sale and a foreclosure were shortened, the buyers who are ultimately going to receive a “no” from the bank could continue on their search for a home.
The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR) put out a significant study on foreclosures in our market.  We will share some of the findings with you through the week, so please check back.

Open House Extravaganza

This weekend there are over 5,000 houses being held open throughout the state, and over 500 in Minneapolis alone. Follow the link to search for properties that fit your objectives: Open House Directory.  Please let us know if you would like one of us to come along with you. As always, we would love to be your agent, so please contact us.

Photo…shoot…

We had our professional photos taken the other day. We think they did a really nice job. Very professional, if nothing else.

We’ll be using this picture in our marketing campaign.

Twice in one week…more positive press

More good news on the housing front: new listings are down over 11 percent from where they were last year.  Fewer houses on the market means an increase in demand, something the housing market hasn’t had much of in the past few months.

“There’s a long ways to go before we’re out of the buyer’s market, ” said Pat Paulson of Exit Lakes Realty in Wayzata. “It’s a long process, but it starts with reduced seller activity.”

Read “Housing market more stable as listings decrease” in the Star Tribune.

Mill City Farmer’s Market

For those of you who have never been, you must check out the Mill City Farmer’s Market (located between Mill City Museum and the Guthrie), which opens this Saturday and runs through October. Organic produce, live animals, free-range meats, cooking demos, music, great samples and so much more. I highly recommend McDonner’s Muffin.

Saturday’s 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. May 10-October 18. Directions.

Have we hit bottom yet?

Finally. Some positive news coverage regarding the housing market. An article titled, “Light at the end of the tunnel?” was published in Tuesday’s Star Trib.

“Homebuilding stocks have started to outperform the overall stock market. Mortgage rates are down about 1 percent since last summer,” Tufte said. “Housing affordability has improved significantly over the past six months [thanks to falling prices]. Home refinancings are up significantly. And applications recently jumped all the way back to the highest level since 2004.”

Read full article here. The end is in sight.