Weekly Market Activity Report


Sumac



For the week ending October 16, New Listings in the Twin Cities declined only 2.1 percent from the same week last year with 1,424 properties entering the market. That’s the smallest year-over-year decline in nine weeks, as the gap comparing last year’s performance with this continues to close.

Weekly Pending Sales are still stuck around the 600 mark. The 580 purchase agreements signed for the week translated into a 39.2 percent drop from last year at this time. That year-over-year decline is nothing new to regular followers of the Weekly Market Activity Report.

The real story continues to be the delicate balance between buyer and seller activity. As of October 25, the 26,606 active listings were 11.3 percent greater than the same week in 2009. For only the second time in the past 25 weeks, the magnitude of inventory growth is smaller than the previous week. In other words, the rate of inventory increase is decelerating. If it sounds like we’re scrounging for good news, we are. Even so, this shouldn’t be overlooked.