Seasonal price increases suggest early signs of market stabilization

Today MAAR released its monthly housing statistics press release. It said this and more:

The median price values of homes in the Twin Cities housing market are showing signs of seasonal increase. The April median sales price of $204,500 represents the second consecutive month of monthly upward price movement, on the heels of seven consecutive months of downward movement.

Despite the seasonal increase, the overall April median sales price of $204,500 is 7.9 percent behind April of last year. Lender-mediated properties, which include foreclosures and short sales, saw a decline of 9.6 percent for the same time period, while traditional, non-lender-mediated properties saw a decline of only 1.4 percent.

At the end of April there were 32,368 homes for sale, a mere 1.5 percent above this time last year, the lowest such year-over-year growth since MAAR began tracking the figures. Year-to-date, the number of new listings has fallen by 9.5 percent relative to the same time period in 2007. The number of year-to-date new listings which are not lender-mediated is decreasing at an even quicker pace—down by 24.0 percent from the same time period last year.

The number of signed purchase agreements (pending sales) in April was 4,208, down only 6.6 percent from last April. Since 2006, these year-over-year declines have typically been between 12 and 20 percent.