Twin Cities Real Estate Market Recap Sept. 2013

Good afternoon, my name is Paul Alsides with Coldwell Banker Burnet on my monthly series of updates for the Twin Cities market for September 2013.

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August sales for the month were up 10%. That’s actually the highest since 2005 which was the height of the market. Buyers and sellers continually watch the market as inventory is low. In my opinion, sellers are getting their price, which is a wonderful thing.

Buyers know that they should make a purchase right now because interest rates are right around 4.5%. And sellers know, right now, that if they put their house on the market, compared to 2008, they are actually getting about 97% of their value.

New listings are up about 16%. Wonderful part about that is people are like “yeah, new listings are up. Is that because of foreclosures and short sales?” That’s not necessarily true. 42% of the market now, the new houses hitting the market, are traditional sales. They are not short sales or foreclosures.

Then again, just to remind you, interest rates are 4.5%. It’s the most affordable it’s been in decades. With inventory down, sellers, the ones that were hesitating to sell, are now putting their houses back on the market knowing that “hey, it’s not the hey-day of 2005”, they still know that at least they can still make money. Fortunately, they’re not going to lose money like they were in 2008, ’09, and ’10.

Median sales price right now is about $208,000 for the Twin Cities. That’s actually a good number. And that represents 18 months of steady increase of year over year gains. Right now there is about 3.5 months’ supply of homes on the market. That means if there are 100 homes out there, they should all be gobbled up within that 3.5 months period.

**Paul is a MN and WI licensed Realtor® at Coldwell Banker Burnet in Woodbury, MN. You can find out more about Paul at www.GoWoodbury.com. Paul can be reached for real estate information or for a free market analysis at 612-701-8711.