Minnesota Market Report (RE/MAX Results)

Below is a summary of what has been happening in the local market from the Realtor Newsletter that comes to my inbox weekly.

Lately I have been sensing the listings are down. Right now its been real difficult for my investors and townhome buyers to find a place. Everything sells so fast. This is a good sign that we are in a more normal Real Estate Market and the bottom priced homes have found the end to their price drops. We probably have a ways to go to sort out the "upper bracket" homes. More info below...

Weekly Market Activity Report

We are now up to 14 consecutive weeks of accelerating inventory attrition. Let's go out on a limb and call this a pattern. For the current period, the number of active listings was down 20.6 percent to 24,047 properties. That's the largest inventory decline in nearly eight years. The metric is now back around first-quarter 2006 levels.

It's plain to see what's driving these declines. Sales are up and listings are down, allowing buyers to absorb the active supply of homes. Buyer activity was up 43.3 percent to 957 purchase agreements signed. While those 957 contracts are reminiscent of 2007, 2008 and even 2009 purchase levels, they far exceed the 2010 summer slowdown. We have now reached 16 consecutive weeks of double-digit gains in buyer activity. Once again, it feels safe to call that a trend.

These undercurrents are flowing into other metrics, such as months supply and measures of seller concessions. Months supply of inventory was down to 7.7 months, the first year-over-year decline since June 2010. On average, sellers are receiving more of their asking price. August's monthly figures, due to be released next Tuesday, should show a continuation pattern of the trends reported for July.