Extreme winter weather may be partly responsible for sluggish durable goods sales, consumer spending, business inventories and exports. As more income goes toward heating bills, four-wheel alignments, frozen pipes and other winter expenses, there is less (or no) remaining discretionary income. Several southern cities were paralyzed by winter storms, costing the economy billions in lost productivity, while consumers were forced to hunker down for much of the winter in the Midwest and Northeast. Consumers should be more than ready for warmer days ahead.
In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending March 1:
• New Listings decreased 12.6% to 1,245
• Pending Sales decreased 8.6% to 901
• Inventory decreased 9.1% to 12,079
For the month of February:
• Median Sales Price increased 14.4% to $183,044
• Days on Market decreased 10.8% to 99
• Percent of Original List Price Received decreased 0.3% to 93.5%
• Months Supply of Inventory decreased 12.5% to 2.8