As I looked at Twin Cities real estate data for February 2018 and saw a drop in inventory yet again, I wondered if the 12-month average change in inventory has slowed at all. I charted it for the last 4 years. The 12-month average change was actually an increase in February 2015, but a drop the last 3 years. February 2017 was the low point when looking at it month by month, good to see this year not quite as big a drop as last year. It will be interesting to see if March shows as big a jump as it did last year.
It is somewhat encouraging that although inventory dropped by 23% compared to last February, the annualized year-over-year drop was a little better in 2018 than in 2017.
Closed sales were down 6% compared to last year, but pending sales were down 4%… likely related to the decline in inventory. Funny thing how you can’t sell homes if you don’t have any to sell.
Meanwhile, both prices and percent of list price received continued to rise. With 98% of list price the average, you can get a sense of how many sales likely had multiple offers with sale prices over list price.
Months supply of inventory in February increased a little bit from January, up to 1.5 months overall, but that was still 21.1% below the 1.9 month supply in February 2017. It took an average 69 days on the market from listing to accepting an offer in February 2018.
Months supply of homes for sale continues to show differences by price range, but it is a buyer’s market in every price range under $1,000,000. There is less than a 1-month supply in all prices under $250,000, and even homes priced $500,000 to $1M have less than a 5-month supply. The market is considered balanced between buyer and seller when there is a 5-6 months supply of homes for sale.
Townhomes continue to be the housing type in shortest supply, with empty nesters and first-time homebuyers often competing for the same properties.
With the job market remaining strong and the economy doing well interest rates are climbing. It will be interesting to see what impact that has on the housing market this year.
The figures above are based on statistics for the combined 13-county Twin Cities metropolitan area released by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors.
Never forget that all real estate is local and what is happening in your neighborhood may be very different from the overall metro area.
Click here for local reports on 350+ metro area communities
RE/MAX Results HomesMSP Team – info@homesmsp.com
RELATED POSTS
