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Twin Cities

Patty Plourde — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 18:39:13 +0000

New listings on the market continue to drop…this is great news for Twin Cities housing market. We need less inventory before we can expect pricing to level off.

In the last week of June, new listings dropped by 10.6 percent compared to the same week in 2007. This is the sixteenth consecutive week of year-over-year decline….again great news for MN. During this period, there have been a total 5,881 fewer new listings than last year. The total inventory of homes currently for sale is 2.6 percent lower than last year. This is the first signs of change. Although we have a long way to go, we are moving in the right direction. Thanks to Minnesota’s wide economic base, we don’t experience the deep swings that other markets see.

On the flip side, buyer demand remains relatively flat after over two years of heavy downward momentum. Pending sales for the week ending June 21 were 1.8 percent behind the same week last year. This is the 9th week in the last eleven where pending sales posted figures that were within 5 percent of one year ago, either above or below. Although these are not bad numbers for the current market, its a lost opportunity for our buyers. Its rare to have low prices and low interest rates at the same time.

Will more buyers in the Twin Cities take advantage of this short window of opportunity? In the past, we have seen a large number of Minnesotans wait until the rates increase before making a buying decision. With the current market rates at 6%, its a smart move to use FHA mortgage’s as a way to increase equity growth for home owners. These are assumable loans, when rates go up, a home with an assumable low rate will be more valuable when its time to sell.

Minneapolis Real Estate Market Improving

Patty Plourde — Wed, 07 May 2008 08:51:17 +0000

The number of homes for sale in the Twin Cities as of today is less than, the homes for sale at this point last year. We are seeing sign’s of recovery in the Minneapolis Real Estate market.

Another Mpls Real Estate market recovery indicator is the Housing affordability index (HAI) . In the Twin Cities, the affordability index is 155%. This is the highest level affordability in 2 years.

Combine the market recovery indicators with the low interest rates, you now have the best time to BUY a home in Minneapolis in years. It’s rare to have interest rates and housing prices low at the same time. These unique buying windows don’t last long, and it happens once every 12-18 years.

The Minneapolis Association of Realtors comments in the activity report:

This is the first time since MAAR began tracking inventory figures that we have been able to show a year-over-year decline in listing supply. There are currently 32,448 residential properties for sale, a decline of 134 units from this time in 2007. With sellers still holding back on putting their homes on the market (new listings are down 11.4 percent from last year over the last three months), this downward year-over-year trend in inventory should continue into the summer.

This week’s edition of the MAAR Weekly Market Activity Report features a new figure for our Supply-Demand Ratio of 7.53, which means there are approximately 7.53 homes on the market for each buyer in May— up 12.9 percent from May 2007 when the figure was 6.67.

Special Announcement: www.MnCommunityNews.com is rapidly growing an “Intensely Local” website featuring interactive community relationship building. If your business wants to participate in the community portal, contact info@MnCommunityNews.com You can update your local neighborhood daily or weekly with information about your business or service. Use the community calender to post events, or load video featuring your product . Demonstrate how you participate in serving the community.

Click here to access the report: Minneapolis Real Estate Activity Report

Innovative News Website Launches in Minneapolis

Patty Plourde — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:36:22 +0000

Innovative Minneapolis news website launched by local Realtors. A new approach to serving residents of Minneapolis and St. Paul involves a benevolent gift to the community online.

Local residents of Minnesota and potential visitors can connect, share pictures, interact for free.

How is it interactive? It’s not limited to Real Estate. It involves all community partners, community organizations, local business’s, city staff, web visitors and all organizations that touch Real Estate.

Why did we do it? “We need a new marketing approach for Minnesota Real Estate. We need new tools for connecting with the Real Estate buyers and sellers. The tools must be dynamic and value driven. Consumers don’t want flat, boring and advertising ridden websites. We are not interested in tricking consumers into working with us. We don’t want to ‘capture’ or ‘lasso’ the consumer.

What do we want? The public to see and feel the value we provide, and then they intentionally contact Exit Realty Imagine Realtors for services. That service is relationship oriented, because Real Estate is a people business. We provide a Care and Community Service Model. It has to be interactive to bring that model to the web.

Realtor Ben Kolkman has joined Exit Realty Imagine to launch the local news website in Minneapolis. Ben’s #1 role is selling real estate. His clients, buyers and sellers in the South West Minneapolis, and the Twin City area are his priority. His role in implementing the Care and Community web portal is about serving the consumers and businesses in South West Minneapolis on a higher level. Ben is leading a new direction for Real Estate. The residents of Minneapolis will be the first to experience the interactive city, which is a work in progress.

The goal: to improve the communication process, create smoother systems for consumers to experience the benefits and amenities of Minneapolis neighborhoods, and to help businesses, schools, arts and entertainment, neighborhood events and associations articulate their connection to the community.

Exit Realty Imagine comments “Ben Kolkman is a Real Estate leader in Minneapolis, he was a natural choice for this role. His heart is in the right place; his integrity in the development process will translate back to the community. “

Patty Plourde of Exit Realty Imagine comments, “Real Estate is the core of the community, every business or organization that serves the Real Estate Tenants and Home Owners is connected to that core. We are helping people touch, taste, feel, see, and hear how they work together as part of the community.”

To see Ben’s neighborhood site under development go to http://MnCommunityNews.com/swmpls/

Business’s, community organizations who want to participate can contact Ben at ben@mncommunitynews.com