Low Inventory Causing Multiple Offers, Quick Sales

Nothing like a 10″ snowfall on April 16th! Oh Minnesota. Despite the high levels of April snows that isn’t stopping buyers heading out in bunches for showings. Open houses have been packed. Pre-approval letters are being sent out in droves. This is all good news, except for the fact that we have no listings.

They say a “healthy” market, essentially meaning we have an even number of buyers and sellers, is between 4-6 months worth of inventory(1). What that means is if everyone stopped putting their house on the market starting May 1st we would have 4-6 months worth of inventory to sell before we ran out of homes. At the bottom of the market in 2010/11 we had upwards of 8-10 months of homes on the market. A strong buyers market. Now, however, is a different story. Here is some of the months of inventory in the Twin Cities(2)

Roseville: 2.4

New Brighton: 3.0

Shoreivew: 2.0
St. Anthony: 1.7!!

Minneapolis: 2.6

Edina: 3.0

Entire Twin Cities area put together: 3.1

So your best case scenario is if you are looking in New Brighton or Edina because they are closest to the bottom part of an equal market of 4 months. If you are looking in St. Anthony, like many of my buyers are, it’s been a tough go. These low levels of inventory have caused a rash of “charts” that say sales are declining from last year. Of course they are because we have no homes to sell! This is causing homes to sell in less than 24 hours. I’ve seen homes in Shoreview sell in an hour. Multiple offers are also commonplace in this market. We hope the increase in temps the next week and these numbers will convince sellers to put their home on the market to help ease some of that but if you are looking right now, don’t get frustrated. There is a home out there for you, it just may take a little more time than normal!

(1) Data from keepingcurrentmatters.com

(2)Data from Minneapolis Assocation of Realtors; mplsrealtor.com

2014 Spring Selling Guide Sample!

Our 2014 Spring Selling Guide has been released and we wanted to throw up a sample for everyone! It’s a totally free guide that we love to send out. It has a ton of info on where the market is at, where it is headed and what you should look out for over the next few months. If you would like the entire guide feel free to shoot us an email and we would be happy to send it to you PDF! We hope it helps!

JoshFellman@edinarealty.com

LanceFellman@edinarealty.com

 

Rent affordability declines, while home sales continue to rise in MN!

According to Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller Home Price Index home prices were up 9.4% in January (year over year). This has become a trend in Minnesota over the last 18 months. Even one of the worst winters in recent memory hasn’t stopped home buyers from throwing on their snow-boots and trekking to open houses. That being said it still seems sellers are anxious. Months inventory of homes for sale in the Twin Cities remains well below 5 and in some cities, like Arden Hills, it is below 2 months of inventory. This indicates we are still in a strong sellers market. With the continuation of low 4% interest rates it doesn’t seem like the market is slowing down any time soon!

Now to the semi bad news. According to a Bring Me the News piece, and a report from MPR News, the cost to renters in Minnesota only continues to rise.

  “The report said that full-time workers would have to earn $16.50 per hour to afford a modest, two-bedroom rental in Minnesota that        averages about $850 a month. But the typical renter in the state only makes about $14.50 per hour.” (Bring me the News).

Makes sense as to why there are so many first time home buyers in Minnesota right now!

Where do you think the market is headed in the next year?