The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors just published their Weekly Market Activity Report for the week of June 14, 2010. For the 5th week in a row there has been a drop in new sales as the aftermath of the Homeowners Tax Credit which expired in April has seen buyers be a scarce commodity.
Pending sales for the week ending June 5 were 57.0 percent behind the pace seen a year ago, dropping from 1,226 in 2009 to 527 today. This is the fifth consecutive week-to-week drop in signed contracts. While activity is down across the board, lender-mediated foreclosures and short sales are slowly increasing their market share of sales because traditional home sales have declined sharply. During this week last year, 37.8 percent of pending sales were lender-mediated; this year the share is 43.3 percent.
Thankfully, new supply is not growing in lock-step. The 1,521 new homes placed on the market for the most recent reporting week were 29.6 percent less than last year at this time. This has helped keep the Months Supply of Inventory metric at 6.9 months, down 9.3 percent from May 2009.
There is some activity happening. All of my current listings had showings this weekend and my newest listing had 10 couples through an open house on Sunday and there are 3 showings scheduled today.
