Weekly Market Activity Report 4.21.08

The signs are early and nascent, but there are some promising early indicators that the Twin Cities housing market is beginning to correct and pull back from its two year-beeline in the buyer's favor. While affordability, interest rates and overall supply are still attractive, home sellers are cutting back on new listings substantially in 2008.

For the week ending April 12, there were 2,156 new listings, down a full 20.1 percent from the same week last year. That's the fifth week in the last six  that we've seen double-digit percentage drops from 2007 activity. Newly signed purchase agreements (pending sales) are still behind last year also, posting a 3.8 percent decline.

While our market still faces a long road ahead to full recovery, the recent reduction in new supply is a positive beacon on the horizon and undoubtedly welcome news for home sellers.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

Comments

[Aaron Dickinson - Edina Realty]

I love it! We're seeing some great trends here... it is too early to tell if they will last but it is clear that there are buyers taking advantage of this market and many sellers have decided to delay their sale.

[Teresa Boardman]

Nice job Jeff.

[Disco]

The problem for buyers is that there is mostly CRAP on the market right now. It's a ton of vacant houses -- sellers who absolutely have to sell. A lot of people with decent houses aren't selling because the market is bad for them.

On the other hand, prices aren't really going down in a lot of areas. Sellers are still quite delusional.

[Aaron Dickinson - Edina Realty]

Ah ha! Disco posting on MAAR's blog now too! Welcome to the party.

While traditional sellers are not dropping their prices substantially, they don't seem to need to. Each market is different, but I'm seeing most traditional sellers get within 5% - 10% of what they would have last year... so if the houses are selling, then obviously there are buyers buying.

When a house sits on the market 60+ days without selling and without a price reduction, it is overpriced. If it sells faster than that or sells within 60 days of the most recent price reduction, my argument is that it is priced right.