Archive for the ‘Edina Housing Market Update’ Category
Forbes Magazine Ranks Minneapolis – St. Paul As Nation’s Most ‘Relaxed’ City
Sunday, November 14th, 2010
Yes, believe it or not, in this article, Forbes Magazine ranks the Twin Cities as the most relaxed, large-sized (14th largest metropolitan area, if I recall correctly) city in the country.
Criteria: 1) Unemployment, 2) Traffic congestion, 3) Access to medical treatment, 4) Percentage of citizens with health insurance, 5) Percentage of population that reported recent, legitimate exercise.
Click Here to read the entire article:
Monthly Minneapolis Real Estate Market Update ‘Skinny’ from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR)
Thursday, April 22nd, 2010
Edina Housing Market February Update
Sunday, February 21st, 2010
The January 2010 stats are in. Read this link to see how January 2010 compared to January 2009, and how 2010 compares to 2009, so far, for home sales in Edina. At this point, the average days on market until a sale has increased, from 126 to 148. The percent of list price received until a sale has also decreased, from 92% to 90.7%. Also, new listings are up from last year, from 89 to 107. Lastly, the data is limited: the stats for 2010 are (obviously) only for 1 month so far.
See the Minneapolis Association of Area Realtors Stats here.
Twin Cities Market is Heating up: Pre-Lists for Southwest Minneapolis & Edina
Wednesday, February 10th, 2010
Buyer activity is increasing, showings are up, and my own buyers and sellers are all now gearing up as well.
Pre-lists (homes coming on the market): 2 in Edina, priced between $400K, and $600K, and 3 in Southwest Minneapolis – Linden Hills and Fulton neighborhoods, priced between $300K and $800K. Most of these sellers are open to pre-list showings, so if you’d like to see any of these homes before they go on the market, please call or email.
Now that the super bowl is cleared, February is here, and all we need are a couple of 40-degree days. Those are the factors that traditionally bring about the ‘spring housing market’ in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
Morgan Stanley’s Current State of the National Housing Market, December 2009
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
This article – posted on Morgan Stanley’s investor website – is perhaps the most succinct analysis of the current state of the national housing market that I have read, in a while.
It breaks down and explains – with references and analysis – the primary areas of concern. While some of these areas are not anything new, Richard Berner (author) does a great job of pointing out the housing risks as well as the strong points through the end of 2009 and what to expect coming into 2010.
He warns of payback from the home-buyer tax credit (with scant reference to a smaller, similar situation back in 1975), rising unemployment, possible looming foreclosures being dumped on the market (shadow inventory), and builders competing with the current, sizable inventory of distressed properties.
However, on the positive side, rates are still low, affordability is much better and still improving, and inventory (although still higher than we’d like to see) is still trending lower, which is great.
Minneapolis Housing Market Update, Tax Credit Extension & $6,500 2nd-time Homebuyer Info
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
Minneapolis and Edina Housing Market Update for Week Ending 10/25/2009
Wednesday, October 28th, 2009
This video update from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR) is a good snapshot of what is happening in our market right now. What it leaves out is what is happening at the upper price-brackets, which I’ll get to in a moment. Also, here is a basic market update on stats such as average days on market until a sale etc.
First: In the Minneapolis and St. Paul area real estate market, we are burning through our supply of foreclosures much faster than we are short sales and with good reason: Foreclosures are much easier to deal with than are short sales. Even though the foreclosure process is after the short sale process, the bank deals and replies to foreclosure offers (usually) in a much timelier manner than they do short sales. Right now our market inventory is @ 2,000 foreclosure units – or about a 2.3 month supply. However, our short sale inventory is @ 4,200 units, which is about a 12.6 month supply (keeping in mind short sales sell less and take longer to sell).
Our housing market will never be in true recovery mode (as a whole) until we A) greatly reduce the existing short-sale and foreclosure (distressed property) inventory B) greatly reduce the potential distressed properties, C) Stabilize the employment sectors and D) See true, tenable signs of recovery in our economy in general. We will really have to let the distressed properties run their course and ‘burn-off’ the current supply and also the future supply (of which it appears there is still a fair amount coming down the pike).
Now does this mean it is doom and gloom in all areas of the our local or national real estate market? The answer is a definite no. As I’ve been saying all along, some micro-markets – at certain price points – within our local and national markets are still holding strong and steady. Examples: Certain parts of Southwest Minneapolis ($175K-$350K) , Edina ($225K-$415K), St. Louis Park ($175K-$250K) and West Bloomington ($175K-$300K) have all had busy activity and strong sales. Of course, the $8,000 home-buyer tax credit and low interest rates have been a great motivator, but these areas usually hold well anyhow.
Upper-bracket sales update: As is much the case nationwide, in general, in the twin-cities, there is a large inventory of upper-bracket homes on the market. In the twin cities metro, we currently have about a 35-month inventory @ $1-million and up. Now this does not mean that a home in the Edina Country Club, South Harriet Park, Parkwood Knolls, or in Kenwood, Lake of the Isles, Lowry Hill, Lynnhurst or Linden Hills will take 35 months to sell, by any means. As I’ve said, the inventory is a 35-month supply, and many areas do much better than others, such as Medina, or Plymouth for example.
One of the difficulties is getting past one great myth right now: the myth that jumbo (loans over $417K) are an expensive, poor product. The truth is, in the past couple of months, jumbo products have come around and been lowered to historically great rates again, and there are now products in which you do not have to do 20% down, and also not have to pay mortgage insurance!
Example 1: A 30-year fixed jumbo can be had for 5.75%.
Example 2: A jumbo, 15%-down option with no mortgage insurance (MI) can be had for 6.1% (as of last Friday).
This is fantastic news for upper-bracket, but the word has to get out there. Right now, in upper-bracket sales, many excellent deals can be had and money (lending) is cheap!
Minneapolis Star Tribune: Minneapolis Metro Housing Market Has Best National Gain in Home Prices
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
As the Minneapolis Association of Area Realtors (MAAR) data has come in, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune is reporting in this article, the Twin Cities’ 4.6 percent rise in home prices in July was the best among the top 20 markets monitored by the Case-Shiller Index.
July 2009 was the largest month-to-month rise in home prices (over June) that we have seen in over a decade. July was the third consecutive monthly gain in the Minneapolis/St. Paul housing market.
The article goes on to point out how consumer confidence is closely tied to losses and gains in the housing market (I’m quite certain we’re all aware of this by now), and how the good news is somewhat relative, as even though we are currently up, August is a tougher month than July was, and that overall we are down a long ways from the very untenable highs we had 4 years ago.
More to be revealed…