Weekly Market Activity Report

Compiled with statistics from the Southern Twin Cities Association of REALTORS....

 

The month's supply of total inventory in the Twin Cities housing market fell slightly to 9.5 months for October, which is 3.9 percent below last October. While the downward year-over-year movement is encouraging, we are still far from a balanced market.

Home values continue to experience downward pressure as lender-mediated foreclosure and short sale properties maintain their relatively strong market share. 

The lower price ranges remain a hotbed for activity. For instance, sales under $120,000 have increased 178.0 percent in the last year, jumping to 5,473 sales during the last twelve months compared to 1,969 during the twelve months prior to that.

The big letdown in home sales that many of us have expected following the recent drops in consumer confidence has yet to materialize in the Twin Cities housing market. For the week ending October 25, there were 602 pending sales, up 17.1 percent over the same week last year. Despite the uncertainties swirling in the general economy, home sales continue to post year-over-year increases every week. Lender-mediated sales continue to grow market share, as 51.1 percent of pending sales for the most recent reporting week were foreclosures or short sales, which should mean continued declines in median sales prices.

New listings for the same week were down 2.0 percent from the same week in 2007, and the total number of active homes for sale is down by 9.2 percent year-over-year.

The updated Supply-Demand Ratio of 10.72 for this week's edition of the MAAR Weekly Market Activity Report incidates that there will be approximately 10.72 houses for every buyer during the month of November. This is down 13.9 percent from November 2007's figure of 12.45.