Twin Cities Home Sellers Doing the Happy Dance

Market snapshot: This is a very difficult market for buyers, especially in the lower price tiers as the theme of low inventory coupled with high demand endures. As inventory levels continue to shrink, it is becoming really tough to buy a home, especially for first-time buyers and downsizing boomers. Nevertheless, they persist.

So far, buyers, even faced with the shortage of available homes, rising prices and increased mortgage interest rates have not been deterred. Heading into spring, which is the strongest real estate season of the year, begs the question of how much inventory will we see in the market and will the increased cost of buying a home temper buyer demand. As long as job numbers and economic factors remain strong, buyer confidence should remain high and continue to fuel the demand for housing.

For the week ending March 11th and 18th, we see a decline in inventory and a decline in pending sales. This may be a signal that buyers are dropping out of the market but based on those 2 weeks statistics it is too early to say.  We are seeing a decline in the gap of new listings compared to last year as the month progresses so it may just be indicative of a more traditional onset of the spring market whereas last year it was acting like spring even though we were still slogging...