Tara O'Brien's Minneapolis Real Estate Update: July 2011

Edina Realty and Tara O'Brien are selling a wonderful starter home in quiet Camden neighborhood. Four bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, original hardwood floors and character built in. Large expansion upstairs with large bedroom sizes and closets. Room to grow in the basement by adding carpet in the family room and a large workshop for the builder in your life. This home is ready to move into and ready for a new buyer. Priced to sell at $140,000. A must see home with updated kitchen, breakfast nook and attached garage.

Tara O'Brien, Realtor
612-810-7728

Home sales in the Twin Cities housing market continue to show strong year-over-year growth, but we must continue to point out that this is mostly due to how extraordinarily quiet last year was at this time following the expiration of the federal home buyer tax credit.

For the week ending July 9, there were 788 pending sales, an increase of 40.2 percent from a year ago. The amount of signed purchase agreements seen in recent weeks is similar to the activity for the same weeks in the summer of 2008.
The good news is that fewer homes are being listed, which is helping to dampen any potential for an oversupply problem. Over the last three months, there have been roughly 1,400 fewer new listings than during the same period in 2010, and the inventory of available homes for sale is down 16.1 percent from this time last year.

As always, balance between buyers and sellers plus a healthy, sustainable market is the ultimate goal.
-MAAR

For the week ending July 2, there were 1,057 purchase agreements, a 58.2 percent increase over the 668 seen during the same week last year.

Let's sprinkle in some context. Over the past 10 weeks in the Twin Cities metro area, pending sales have increased slightly from 986 to 1,057. Over the same 10 weeks in 2010, pending sales plunged from a credit-inspired 1,505 to an unimpressive 668. The resulting year-over-year comparisons? Three consecutive weeks of 50.0 percent or greater gains and eight consecutive weeks of double-digit gains in buyer activity.

On the seller side, activity remains comparable with 2010 levels. The 1,396 new properties added to the market were only 0.7 percent under year-ago levels. Strong sales gains coupled with stagnant listing activity is dramatically drawing down inventory levels.

There are currently 25,613 homes being actively marketed in NorthstarMLS. That's down 15.6 percent from the 30,072 seen at this time last year, which is the largest inventory decline since January 2010.-MAAR