New listings are increasing seasonally, but not enough to curb the trend of dropping compared to past years, with April 2018 down 7.2% compared to April 2017.
The new listings aren’t enough to feed the demand, bringing months supply of inventory down 25% compared to last year… now at only 1.8 months. This means it would take less than 2 months for everything to be sold if no new homes came on the market.
Closed sales were down 5.2% in April 2018, but pending sales were down even more… 6.6% below last year. That is even more concerning because that is what predicts future sales.
With fierce competition for homes, especially in the lower price ranges, sellers are averaging sale prices of 99.9% of list price… a long way from the average 88% of list price at the beginning of 2011.
Prices are driven high by multiple offers. Sale prices $10k, $20k, sometimes even more above list price are not unheard of… resulting in climbing sales prices. April 2018 median sales price was 8.6% over last year, at $266,000.
Price range does make a difference… but it is a buyer’s market only in the price range over $1M, which also showed the largest gain in sales. The market is considered balanced when there is a 5-6 months supply of homes for sale.
Townhomes continue to be the property type with the lowest months supply of inventory.
With a strong job market, the economy doing well and interest rates and rents rising, it continues to be inventory supply that is holding back the housing market.
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.
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RE/MAX Results HomesMSP Team – info@homesmsp.com
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