Yesterday, I received a text from a friend of mine who lives in Linden Hills who told me one of my bus-bench ads ‘grew a beard…Chuck Norris-style’ – I laughed and assumed it was the typical black-marker beard job, and thus called my sales rep at US Bench. He said ‘no problem’.

Well, last eve when I took my kids to Dairy Queen on 50th, I decided to drive by the 49 1/2 and France bus-bench to see what I would look  like with a beard. What I did not realize was that my friend meant ‘Chuck Norris-style’ quite literally.

Somebody actually took the time to print-out Chuck’s head – to-scale – and put it on my body, with a very permanent adhesive/glue.

I’ve gotten quite a few calls/emails/texts since yesterday. This has been good for quite a few laughs. Not too bad. Once my rep at US Bench found out the permanence of this one, (understandably) he was not too happy.

Just listed: This wonderful, 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 3-stall (heated) garage is listed in Farmington. This home is priced competitively at $219,900. It is a corner lot, with very nice views of the community pond and fir-trees from the back deck. 19298 Evening star way has a nice open floor-plan, vaulted ceilings on the main floor, a 3-point (optimal design) kitchen with a center island, a walkout deck and a nice contemporary,  exterior design with low-maintenance siding. To view the full property description, see additional photos and take the video tour, click here.

This home is turn-key and ready to go.

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.

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.

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!

This is a perfect location within Linden Hills, with easy access to Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun, as well as an easy walk or bike-ride to Uptown Minneapolis, or the 50th and France neighborhood.

The backyard is a must see, a true urban retreat. 4035 Xerxes Ave South has a 2-plus garage, 2 new bathrooms, updated mechanicals, an updated kitchen, new roof, gutters, paver-patio, hot-tub, new fireplace (entirely) and much more.

This home is exclusively marketed by Southwest Minneapolis Realtor Zeb Haney and the Edina Realty – 50th & France Office, Edina, MN.

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…