For week ending Feb 11, 2012:

• New Listings decreased 0.4% to 1,313
• Pending Sales increased 28.9% to 928
• Inventory decreased 23.5% to 17,690

Read Full Report from Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors

The Pending Sales are holding a wide spread of improvement over a year ago, this is promising – not a recovery yet, but positive improvement!

This is too early to call but it raised my eyebrow a bit.  The New Listing Inventory had been holding below year over year averages, but this week the spread was down to almost even with year over year.   A couple questions I am asking myself;  are we going to see a sharp increase in new listings?  Is this an early sign of the “pent up supply” of homes that held off selling because of market conditions?

We can certainly handle more inventory as long as the Pending Sales continue to improve…  There is a point of too much inventory, we aren’t there yet – we are closer to a Seller’s Market than a Buyer’s Market in terms of months supply of homes.   This is a metric we will need to keep an eye on in the coming weeks…

Related articles

• Twin Cities Real Estate Market Update, 4.6 Month Supply of Homes. (craigkamman.com)

• Borrowers must be current on there mortgage payment and the mortgage must be held by fannie or freddie
• Appraisals are not required on most of the refinances saving you time and money
• Most transactions require no income documentation
•  LTV requirements are relaxed to allow borrowers to take advantage of the great rates even if there value is negative. Borrowers with 1st and 2nd mortgages are a great example of people who can now be helped
• Occupancy – many borrowers have elected to rent there previous home and buy a new primary residence. The rental property can now be refinance with HARP 2.0, where it previously would not qualify

Determine whether your mortgage is owned or guaranteed by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac by visiting their respective Loan Lookup Tools.

Related articles

• GSEs release guidance on HARP changes (housingwire.com)

Image via Wikipedia

It is always fun to guess what homes of the future might look like as technology makes possibilities look endless.  Maybe you remember watching the Jetsons as a kid and later Star Trek thinking of all the possibilities.  I still like to think of the possibilities on how technology may be changing our lives.

Here are a couple of videos from Croning Glass.   Titled “A Day of Glass Pt 1 and Pt 2″.

Does this give your imagination new ideas of what might be possible with homes of tomorrow?

Single-family housing starts in January were at a rate of 508,000; this is 1.0 percent (±19.0%)* below the revised December figure of 513,000. The January rate for units in buildings with five units or more was 175,000.

Read Full Press Release

The Midwest Region took a heavier drop, -35.9% from December 2011 to January 2012.   I am not sure how to explain that large of drop yet.  I suspect some of this will be seasonal.  When the Minneapolis/St Paul data comes out, we will get a clearer understanding of our marketplace.

Chart comparing National 1-unit housing starts compared to the Midwest Region 1-unit housing starts.

The Building Permits nationally were up almost 1% and the Midwest Region’s Building 1-Unit Building Permits were down -2.7%.  Keep in mind the Midwest Region is a large area and includes Chicago, Milwaukee, and St Louis.  Conditions in those marketplaces may be what is pulling the midwest regions figures below the national stats.  When the Minneapolis/St Paul figures are released, it will give us a clearer picture of what is happening.

The good news is the permits aren’t down by much, just the housing starts.  Weather can play a role in when the construction actually starts vs when the building permit is pulled…

Single-family authorizations in January were at a rate of 445,000; this is 0.9 percent (±1.1%)* above the revised December figure of
441,000. Authorizations of units in buildings with five units or more were at a rate of 208,000 in January.

Read Full Press Release

Related articles

• Housing Starts increase in November (calculatedriskblog.com)
• NAHB Builder Confidence index increases in February; Highest in over four years (calculatedriskblog.com)
• Builder Sentiment Up Again (eyeonhousing.wordpress.com)
• Building Permits for Minneapolis/St Paul (craigkamman.com)

Related articles

• Home Design Trends of 2011 (craigkamman.com)
• 2012 Design Trends: Kitchen Tiles (craigkamman.com)
• 3 Recession Home Remodeling Trends Likely to Stick Around (money.usnews.com)

The trend continues for the weekly report of decreased new listings and increased pending sales bring us the continued lowered inventory.

• New Listings decreased 6.7% to 1,236
• Pending Sales increased 35.8% to 888
• Inventory decreased 23.2% to 17,697

For the Month of January we are approaching some astounding inventory figures.  What strikes me from this report is the Month Supply of Inventory, we are down to 4.6 months supply of homes for sale.  We are approaching Seller’s Market territory.

There is a dynamic that Robert Shiller points out that real estate markets tend to stay in motion in one direction for long periods of time without ups and downs like the stock market.  We are seeing that here, these inventory levels would suggest we should be seeing price increases – but they have only slightly begun to materialize in the form of higher percentage of list price received.  If this persists we will likely see the trend reverse to price increases.  There are too many unknowns or “headwinds” yet to comfortably say this is the market recovery or just another bounce along the bottom.  Time will tell, but I will enjoy this good news for what it is:  we are going to have a great Spring Market.

For the month of January:
• Median Sales Price decreased 3.4% to $140,000
• Days on Market decreased 8.4% to 142
• Percent of Original List Price Received increased 3.4% to 91.2%
• Months Supply of Inventory decreased 35.2% to 4.6

Read Full Report from Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors

Above: Months Supply is at 4.6 month.  It hasn’t been this low since 2004-2006.  Under 4 month supply and we are in a Seller’s Market.

Above:  Look at the Percentage price increase on the right hand side – the trend is beginning to head upwards slowly – suggesting that the prices are stabilizing.  If you are a buyer you have probably been experiencing multiple offer situations in some areas of the Twin Cities and seeing  homes beginning to go over list price.  This is still spotty, but it is beginning to happen.   This will pose a problem going forward with Appraisals, Appraiser will have a difficult time coming up with Comps to establish values.  So a full reversal of the market trend will take time.

If you are a buyer: take a mental note of this chart.  The Affordability Index, if rates nudge up and prices begin to stabilize and increase, the housing affordability index will go down.  This may not last long…  So don’t wait too long!

Related articles

• Twin Cities Weekly Real Estate Market Update, week ending January 28 2012 (craigkamman.com)