Twin Cities Housing Market
Twin Cities Housing Market
The Twin Cities housing market story for July in Minneapolis-St. Paul is much the same as it has been month over month for a couple of years. For sellers, it’s celebration and uncorking the champagne bottle and for buyers, it is a test of fortitude and commitment to home ownership. The Twin Cities is following a national trend of the past two years where inventory continues to shrink and median sale price continues to increase. How long this market is sustainable, is anyone’s guess but with unemployment holding at 4.3 percent the demand to purchase a home remains high.
A look at the numbers for July has available homes for sale at 12,407 which is a drop of 18.3% from July of 2016. The month's supply of inventory sits at 2.5 compared to 3.1 last year same time, a 19.4% decline. Buyers in the Twin Cities closed on 6,020 homes, 2.6% less than July 2016 at 6,128. Declining inventory, pending sales, closed sales and days on market was half the story, the other half being an increase in median sale price, of $254,000 up 5.9% over last year, the percentage of list price received at 99.2 representing a gain of 0.8% over July of last year.
Maybe you remember the old children’s game of musical chairs that was once popular at birthday parties. When the music stopped, the small humans who were left without a seat were out of the game. This is the current market situation. There is simply not enough homes for all the buyers who want a seat at the ownership table. The quest to buy a home at the lower price levels is a serious challenge and the once rare multiple offers situation has become the norm for desirable properties. Moreover, it is not unusual to have those same properties stay on the market no longer than a day!
While new construction is on the rise, it will take some time before new homes...