Twin Cities Home Prices Show Signs of Strength
March 10, 2010
The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors sent out a News Release today to announce that for the 2nd straight month the median home price in the Twin Cities has increased. This is the first back to back monthly increase since 2006. Home Prices Show Signs of Stability
Here were the highlights from the report -
- For the second consecutive month, home prices in the Twin Cities 13-county metropolitan area showed a year-over-year increase. We haven’t seen back-to-back year-over-year increases since 2006.
- The February median sales price of $159,000 was a 6.0 percent increase from last February’s mark of $150,000. That’s the strongest year-over-year increase since 2005.
- There are fewer foreclosure homes selling now than there were last February.
- The market share of traditional, non-foreclosure homes has grown in the last year, tilting prices upward and stabilizing the market.
- The median sales price of traditional homes (excluding foreclosures and short sales) in February was $204,900, down only $100 from last February’s mark of $205,000.
- Foreclosures posted a 0.8 percent increase to $120,000, while short sale properties posted a 6.7 percent decline to $145,000.
- There were 3,527 signed purchase agreements in February, an increase of 6.4 percent from a year ago.
- We expect home sales to tick up as buyers move to take advantage of the tax incentives before the April 30 deadline.
- Affordability is outstanding. The current Housing Affordability Index of 213 is the fourth-highest mark ever recorded.
- Buyer activity has brought inventory down, so there are far fewer homes for buyers to choose from. The March Supply-Demand Ratio of 5.39 means that there are 5.39 homes available per buyer in the month. In March 2008 the mark was 8.16.
Conclusion
The Homebuyer tax credit of $8,000 for first time homebuyers and $6,500 for move up buyers along with interest rates that remain near 5% is creating a large impetus for home sales. As we saw with the “Cash for Clunkers” program and the recent Minnesota Appliance Rebates, free government money does have a positive effect on consumer behavior. Sellers have a 45 day window to get their homes sold. After May 1st expect sales to drop off substantially.
Virtual Agent – The Solution For Capturing More Buyer Data
February 8, 2010
Go ahead!
Call that phone #, put in code #124 and then select option #1
You are using Virtual Agent – a mobile prospecting tool that allows potential clients to interact with your property through their cell phone. They can view property information, photos and even virtual tours and more from their mobile phone. No more brochure box on the sign post which wastes paper (when it’s full) and gives no feedback regarding the people who have an interest in your property.
Power of Mobile Prospecting
Once a potential buyer has called about your listing you have now captured their phone number which allows you to connect with them regarding open houses, price reductions, pending offers, special financing or any other announcements.
Why Should You Care?
Our team has invested in this new tool to help our listing clients capture and communicate with more potential buyers. It’s just one more tool in our marketing plan that helps our sellers have the most comprehensive marketing campaign available.
For more details on our complete marketing campaign for selling your home in the Twin Cities drop me a line.
Number of Realtors in Twin Cities Continues to Decline
February 5, 2010
An article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press caught my eye this week as it discussed the continued decline of the number of Realtors in the Twin Cities are – Exodus of Twin Cities Realtors Slows A Bit The number of real estate agents not renewing their license has slowed but the days of easy real estate sales and a Realtor on every corner seem to be behind us.
“The movement in the real estate agent population is again mirroring the real estate market,” said Leonard MacKinnon, a spokesman for real estate firm Coldwell Banker Burnet. “In 2009, we began to see some stabilization in the market.”
It was somewhat interesting that the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (of which I am a member) had steady membership while the St. Paul Association of Realtors declined 8% and ended up merging late in 2009 with the Southern Twin Cities Association of Realtors to boost membership.
Statewide, membership in the group’s 18 chapters has dropped by nearly 7,000 — or 25 percent — from its 2006 peak of 26,991. “If you were in the business before the bubble and before the easy financing, you learned how to do the prospecting and you built a client base,” Galler said. “Once the bubble burst, those folks that didn’t learn the prospecting side of the business had a very difficult time continuing.”
As you see, we are down 25% from the peak 3+ years ago which might actually be slightly less of a drop than the overall real estate pricing decline. The reason for such a drop is clearly related to the income opportunity. It’s interesting to hear how many people think Realtors are overpaid (based on the cost of selling a home) but according to the National Association of Realtors Member Profile -
- Median gross income of Realtors fell 14% to $36,700 in 2008.
- 72% of Realtors receive no benefits through their firm.
- These were the statistics for 2008 – it’s highly likely the declined further in 2009. Based on those numbers it’s plan to see that there were probably way too many Realtors in the business, especially part-timers. Therefore, the decline can only serve to help those Realtors that remain to be more successful which benefits their clients by having a resource that’s fully dedicated to the profession.
Staging Your Home – Hiding The Kids Things
November 3, 2009
I found the following video that does a great job of giving helpful tips to home sellers about how to come up with unique storage solutions so it’s easy to hide the kids toys when you are trying to sell your home. Having a clutter free home makes a huge difference to buyers when they come through for a showing. You only get one chance to make a good impression.
What Real Estate Pictures Work Best To Attract Attention?
October 30, 2009
Zillow recently published an article that showed which real estate ads were driving the most traffic. One thing that caught my attention was the fact that of their Top 50 performing ads – all 50 of them were of homes taken on a sunny day. Top Performing Zillow Ads
The 2 pictures above are homes currently on the market in Lakeville, MN. The one on the left is taken on a cloudy day, the right side is bright and sunny. The left one is terribly framed and hardly shows the house while the other does a great job of catching the viewers attention.
What this really does is demonstrate the importance of working with a Realtor that uses a professional photographer and doesn’t just show up with their own digital camera to save money. This article on Active Rain (a website for real estate agents) really shows the difference in using a professional – Do You Hire Professionals?
The WE Team uses professional photographers with virtual tours and a specialized website that lets our clients know exactly which pictures are being viewed each day:
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