Pended sales & sold homes in the Minneapolis market, by neighborhood

Edina Realty Market Update – March 2009

The trend continues! For the ninth month in a row, pended sales in the Twin Cities area are up over the prior year. January pended sales were up more than 10 percent over last year; for the week ending Feb. 14, they were up 17 percent. Buyers really seem to be taking advantage of opportunities among lender mediated and bank owned properties, which currently account for about 60 percent of sales according to the Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS® (MAAR).

146 – Cumulative days on market

10.3% – Fewer listings on the market than 1 year ago totaling 54,597

54% – Of the inventory that has sold in last 30 days has had a price adjustment

10.3% – Increase in sales over last year

14 – For every sale that takes place, there are 14 more properties that haven’t sold

23 – Showings for every home that sells

Open houses today (Saturday)

Saturday from 11:30 – 1:30 p.m.
4750 Dawnview Terrace, Golden Valley
Beautiful three bedroom, two bath home on an over-sized lot. Huge deck with hot tub and wonderfully updated lower-level entertainment room with gas fireplace.
Price just reduced to $264,900

Saturday from 2-4 p.m.
4840 Ewing Avenue South, Minneapolis
Just came on the market this week – you must see this beautiful three bedroom, two bath Tudor in the wonderful 50th and France neighborhood of South Minneapolis. You’ll love the tasteful updates and brand new lower-level entertainment room – the perfect space to enjoy a snowy, winter day.
Priced at $389,000

4840 Ewing Avenue South – $389,000

Introducing the newest of the Minne-apple listings – 4840 Ewing Avenue South in the desirable 50th and France neighborhood of Southwest Minneapolis. Old-world charm with modern updates! You’ll fall in love with this immaculate three-bedroom, two-bathroom Tudor. Original wood floors, spacious & light-filled living and dining room, updated kitchen and baths & newly remodeled lower-level entertainment room. Move right in and make this home your own!

We’ll be open this weekend on Saturday from 2-4 p.m. and Sunday 12-4 p.m. We’d love you to stop in for a look!

For more details, click on the listing on www.edinarealty.com.

Listings down and pending sales up – hurray!

Improvements to the housing market continue to flourish during the month of February. The number of active listings is down 12% and new listings are down 15% from this time last year. Meanwhile, pended sales are up 25% from last year. Fewer houses on the market + more houses selling = happier sellers.

2008 Tax Credit vs. 2009 Tax Credit

We were quite pleased, in the Minne-apple world, that the most recent Stimulus Bill includes improvements to the homebuyer tax credit. We would have loved the proposed $15,000 tax credit for all homebuyers to have passed, but $8,000 credit for all first time buyers with no repayment is not at all shabby. In fact, it’s fantastic! Not only does this help those in the market to buy a home, it creates an improvement for those selling as well. Let’s watch this tax credit trickle down!

Below is a chart outlining the improvements:

Supply-Demand and Housing Affordability

The Supply-Demand Ratio (SDR) tells us how many homes are on the market for every active buyer. In January 2009 the SDR was 8.36, which is down 19.7% from January 2008 when the SDR was 10.41. This number is up 18.2% from January 2007 when the SDR was 7.07%. What do these numbers mean? They mean we are working towards a balanced market – in an evenly balanced market the SDR will be closer to 4 or 5.

The current Housing Affordability Index is at a record high of 192. This is the highest it has even been since the Minneapolis Association of Realtors started tracking affordability during the 1980s. A year ago the affordability index was at 141 – which means that affordability is up 36.2% in the last year alone. For more information on Affordability, click here and here.

Pended sales are up

After two-plus years of a faltering market, a recent upswing in Twin Cities homes sales during the second half of 2008 is cause for some measured optimism heading into 2009. In the Twin Cities 13-county metro area, total pending sales for 2008 ended at 44,067, up 1.2 percent from 2007. This is the first year-over-year increase in pending sales since 2004. There were 38,746 closed home sales in 2008, down only 3.5 percent from 2007.

In the second half of the year, sales picked up momentum and haven’t let up since due to tumbling mortgage rates and increased affordability. Since July, there have been 15.7 percent more pending sales than there were during the same time period last year, and the most recent month saw a year-over-year increase of almost 30 percent.

Market Update – January 2009

The Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS’® (MAAR) most recent market activity report (week of Jan. 5, 2009) features an updated supply-demand ratio (measures the number of houses for sale for each buyer) that illustrates significant changes from a year ago. This January’s number of 8.36 shows a decline of 19.7 percent from last January’s 10.41. That means for every buyer, there are about eight homes for sale compared with 10 for every buyer last year. The reduced supply can be attributed to fewer listings coming on the market, plunging mortgage rates and incredible home affordability levels – all of which are good signs for improving market conditions overall.

All housing activity in the Twin Cities market was slow during the week of the Christmas holiday as expected. Backing up a week, home sales for the week ending December 20 were 20.0 percent ahead of the same time last year thanks to a downward trend in mortgage rates to the lowest level in decades according to MAAR. In measuring the three week period following the rate cut, the increase in pending sales was 27.5 percent – 368 more pending sales than during the same period in 2007. During this same time, 57.6 percent of sales were lender mediated foreclosures and short sales and 45.8 percent were below $150,000, illustrating that buyers are capitalizing on great deals.

Because 5% just isn’t good enough…

Interest rates for a 30-year conventional loan are at 4.75%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you weren’t looking to buy before, you should be now!