Monthly Skinny: August 2011

Here's the latest Skinny put out by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors. Sales were up & inventory levels are dropping. If this keeps go, the start of the housing recovery may be in hand.  Check out this short video for more details. 

Weekly Market Activity Report

While day traders continue along their roller coaster ride, 997 Twin Cities home buyers made the smart investment in real estate. That's 40.0 percent more than those who made the investment last year. As this year's pending sales trend line rounds off its seasonal peak, you'll notice that purchase demand is coming back in line with historical trends.

Sellers were another story. There were 1,433 new listings, 18.7 percent fewer than this time last year. Seller activity has also likely reached its seasonal peak but remains below historical levels for this time of year. Consequently, buyers have effectively absorbed existing supply. That's a good thing. The number of active listings is down 18.5 percent to 24,362 available homes for sale.

With strong sales and less new supply entering the market, the balance is shifting toward neutral. Both the prevalence and magnitude of seller concessions have stabilized, and absorption rates improved in July after 12 months of sizable increases. Though still slightly lower than last summer, prices have increased nearly 18.0 percent from March to June of this year.

Check out this cool interactive website from the New York Times to help you determine if it's better to buy or rent. CNN just reported that in many places it's become better to buy again, as the rental market is so tight, that rents have gone up. I've seen this in Minneapolis, so if you're on the fence, you may want to give this a look.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/business/buy-rent-calculator.html

Monthly Skinny: July 2011

Here's the July Monthly Skinny from the Mpls Area Association of Realtors.