Weekly Market Activity Report

The local housing market continues to mimic spring growth, as Twin Citizens emerge from their wintry cocoons just in time for the final days of the home buyer tax credit. For the week ending March 20, there were 2,277 new listings, up 28.8 percent from a year ago and marking the seventh consecutive week of strong year-over-year increases.
Pending sales dropped a bit from their high the previous week, but the 950 signed purchase agreements for the week were 10.2 percent ahead of where they were at this point last year.
As the tax credit's April 30 deadline looms, expect a flurry of home sales activity. Time will tell what happens when the credit has expired, but the next few weeks should be extremely active.

I'm back from Vacation, so here's the latest report form the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors for all you Inquiring Minds.

Weekly Market Activity Report

The $6,500 tax credit for move-up buyers appears to be stimulating some sellers to place their homes on the market in an attempt to sell them before the credit expires. For the week ending March 6, there were 2,279 new listings, an increase of 24.6 percent from a year ago. Every price range is seeing increased listing activity except for the two ends of the price spectrum: below $120,000 and above $1 million.For the same reporting week, there were 809 accepted offers, which is a decline of 6.9 percent from a year ago. Over the last three months, pending sales have been just 2.0 percent higher than during the same period a year ago.As a result of the strong new listings and flat pending sales, the inventory of available homes is rising faster this spring than it did last year. While there are still 8.2 percent fewer homes for sale right now than there were a year ago, that's a much smaller year-over-year decline than we've seen over the last two years.