October Sales Figures for the Twin Cities Real Estate Market
The Star Tribune ran this story about a week and a half ago once the October sales figures were published. Jim Buchta published an article entitled, “Home Sales: The Slide Goes On.”
Highlights include:
- New listings were up 2.7% compared to October 2006
- Median sales price fell 3.5% to $220,000 compared to October 2006
- Pending home sales increased 14.6% from September ’07 to October ’07 (more on that below)
- For the first 10 months of the year, sales are 16% lower compared to 2006
Jim then quoted me:
John Murphy, sales agent for Edina Realty and a specialist in the western suburbs, said that because the mortgage meltdown didn’t really hit Wall Street until mid-August, the October uptick might be a sign that shoppers have a better sense of what’s happening in the markets.
“Buyers are trying to find their legs again in October,” he said. “So it doesn’t surprise me that there was more activity.”
He then goes on to note that sellers are getting 93.1% of their asking price this year compared to 97.7% two years ago.
Two years ago the median sale price in October was $230,000, 4.4 percent higher than now, but Murphy said that given the level of inventory, prices could come down even more. “It doesn’t necessarily mean prices have to come down a lot,” he said. “But 5 to 10 percent off the current asking price seems reasonable. Whether or not that will get buyers back into the game is hard to know.”
He added that there are still plenty of buyers, but many are being patient and are waiting for listings to “age,” or to sit on the market until a seller makes a price reduction or gets desperate.
“Buyers are still looking for deals,” he said. “And most sellers aren’t willing to give them the deals buyers are looking for.”
As a follow up to this story, the Case Schiller Index was published this past Tuesday this week. It noted that home prices are down 4.5% in the Twin Cities metro.
