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Archive for June, 2009

Edina Realty Bringing Buyers and Sellers Together Even More Than Before

Friday, June 26th, 2009

The two primary reasons I chose Edina Realty as the brokerage under which to hang my Realtor hat was that I was impressed with the technology Edina Realty offered to agents, and thus to our clients, and also the size and effectiveness of the Realtor-to-Realtor networking of our seller’s homes and buyer’s needs, within Edina Realty.

The technology: www.edinarealty.com has been (by far) the single, most used real estate website in the entire twin cities metro-market. According to statistics, www.edinarealty.com gets about an 80%-85% market share for home searches. Anybody who has used our home search tools, open house tools, sold data tools, and other items offered at www.edinarealty.com realizes that all other websites are well behind in user-friendliness and effectiveness. Many of my friends with other brokerages openly admit that they point their clients to our website to search for homes in the Minneapolis area housing market. I continually  hear feedback from clients that they love our site, even from relocation, out-of-town buyers who found our site while searching for homes in the twin-cities.

This same forward-thinking is applied to the agent technology tools available to us, in our behind-the-scenes marketing technology. From brochures and mailers to direct marketing to people who are registered on www.edinarealty.com to internal networking sites and a whole lot more, the entire marketing package really impressed me from the get-go.

Most impressive however, was the ability to network my sellers and buyers – through our internal network, called ‘Network One’  - homes and buyer needs, well before they go to market. We have been selling about 20%-25% of our homes internally. Network One has been the single greatest tool in market a client’s home pre-MLS (before it shows up on the public MLS sites). On the flip side, I have access to viewing up-coming listings for my buyers, and actually getting my buyers into the best listings, even before they go on the market.

This is why I chose the largest and most effective brokerage in the area, with the best marketing technology for my clients listings, in order to best serve my sellers and buyers.

These very real advantages are for you!

Posted in Edina Homes, Edina Housing Market Update, Edina Realty, Homes for sale Minneapolis, Minneapolis Homes, Real Estate | No Comments »

Homes For Sale Minneapolis, Market Update

Friday, June 26th, 2009

According to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR) for week ending 06/26/2009, we have further positive data that our market – in many areas – has positive news. Inventory continues to decline (a total of 33,435 in our metro area, down 19.7% from this same point, last year), pending sales continues to rise (up 33% over this same point, last year), the decline of the percent of the original list price received at sale seems to be stabilizing (-1.2% from last year, for a total of 91.5% of original list price)  the housing affordability index continues to trend toward better affordability, total days on market until a sale is down 7.3% (to 147, from 159 at this point last year), supply-to-demand ratio is down from last year, from 7.57, to 5.04 houses per buyer and the months of inventory is down to 7.6 from 10.4.

Of course, this is all in the general sense. Some area are actually stabilizing and some areas will continue to see further depreciation (some 2nd and 3rd tier suburbs), however, these are all continued, encouraging signs of general stabilization in the Minneapolis housing market.

Posted in Edina Homes, Great Minneapolis Neighborhoods, Homes for sale Minneapolis, Minneapolis Market Update Links, Real Estate | No Comments »

Home for Sale Minneapolis Lakes Area: New Listing in East Lowry Hill

Monday, June 15th, 2009

1-front32609 Emerson Avenue South, Minneapolis, offered for $450K: this new listing on the market is an excellent, classic home in Southwest Minneapolis, as the craftsmanship, woodwork and floorplan are all a fine example of the best of  the Southwest Minneapolis/Lakes-area housing market. This home has 5-bedrooms, 2 baths, 2,712 fsf, and a new 2.5-stall garage. It offers 4 bedrooms on 1 level (2nd floor), as well as a full master-suite on the 3rd floor. The woodwork and built-ins are a must-see.
Click here for more information, photos and a video tour of this home.

Posted in Great Minneapolis Neighborhoods, Homes for sale Minneapolis, Lakes Area Minneapolis, Minneapolis Homes, Southwest Minneapolis Homes | No Comments »

Homes in Minneapolis: Update on Home Sales Activity

Friday, June 12th, 2009

More good news on the housing market front for the Minneapolis housing market: New listings are continually declining in our market, which is one of the keys to recovery. While there are many other factors, a glut of homes on the market is always detrimental. We are finally down in new listings for the entire year, after a continual increase during the previous 7 years. 1,566 homes went on the market last week, vs. 1,752 during this same week, last year. Our peak week this year was week ending 05/09, with 2,058 (the comparable peak week the year prior was 2,380 new listings). So we are down -10.6% in new listings this week over last year. As our Minneapolis/St. Paul housing market has seen this trend for the entire year, I believe this is encouraging news. 

Our supply vs. demand ratio for 06/09  has also come down to 5.04 homes for every active home-buyer, compared with 1 year ago in June 2008, when we had 7.57 homes for every active home-buyer.

Let’s hope this trend continues.

Posted in Edina Homes, Edina Housing Market Update, Minneapolis Market Update Links, Mortgage, Lending, Refinance, Real Estate | No Comments »

Homes in Edina: Sold Housing-Market Data YTD

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

I went through the MLS market data for all single family sold’s in the Edina housing market. What I I found was some interesting data. Broken-down, there are several important indicators, of which are:

1) Total single family homes sold (closed) through June 6th, 2009 (the halfway point of the year) are 94, with an additional 63 ‘pending’ (sold, but not yet closed). Total pending including condos and townhomes are 97.

2) Remaining stats: Average sales price for single-family homes is $533,727, average days on market – 126.8, average beds/baths – 3.76/2.93, average price per square foot – $174.06 (with East Edina @ $200 per/sq. ft. and West Edina @ $155 per/sq. ft.)

3) The lowest-priced home that has sold in Edina year to date is $129,900, and the most expensive home sold in Edina so far for 2009 closed/sold @ $2,600,000.

4) 15 of these sold, single family homes in Edina were registered on the MLS as ‘in foreclosure’ – or ‘lender mediated’ (One was in the $900’s, and another in the $800’s). However, not all agents input or update this data correctly, so I think it is safe to assume that at least a couple more were lender-mediated properties in Edina. Obviously this will also tilt the average sales price down a bit.

What does this mean? It appears that home sales in Edina are somewhat sluggish, but not bad, all things considered. Homes are certainly selling, and some of them are definitely on the higher-end, but with the lower interest rates and first-time home-buyer tax-credit incentive, the market is certainly lopsided toward the lower-end for Edina: the under $400K-priced homes are currently dominating sales, thus tilting the average sales price down a bit from last year (which had high-priced condos and townhomes tilting the average sales price up).

What I am noticing with my buyers is that there are a fair amount of homes on the market in Edina, but many of them being mediocre in quality. What we are still seeing is that when a good or great home comes on the market, that is priced reasonably, it sells for a good price and sells quickly. Buyers are out there, but they want to perceive that value is there.

Posted in Edina Homes, Edina Housing Market Update, Great Edina Neighborhoods, Minneapolis Market Update Links, Real Estate | No Comments »