Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Weekly Market Update from MAAR!

Autumn may be bringing colder temperatures (and snow, too: what's up with that?!?) but the Twin Cities housing market is still hot. Contrary to the typical fall slowdown, pending sales are gaining weekly momentum as home buyers take advantage of the final days of the Federal tax credit.

For the week ending October 3, signed purchase agreements were a stunning 61.2% higher than last year, jumping from 647 to 1,043. New listings are a different story, however, down 8.0% below the previous year. Total active listings remain sluggish compared to a year ago, with the 24,354 on the market representing a 20.9% drop from a year ago.

There are some new stats this week that help bring some perspective on just how much better things have gotten for sellers in the last year:
• Days on Market Until Sale: at 129 days is 11 percent below last year.
• Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale: at 93.9% is 1.8 percent higher than last year.
• Months Supply of Inventory: at 6.6 is 30.5% lower than last year and is closer to a balanced market.

All three indicators are important reflections of market shift. Yet we can't minimize that sellers still face tough conditions, especially in the higher price ranges where sales are still on a downward trend.

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