Twin Cities New Listings Drop 20% for Week Ending April 12, 2008

The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors released their latest report for the Twin Cities market yesterday. There are some very interesting data points to consider. Granted, one week does not make a trend, but it’s worth while to point these items out:

For the week ending April 12, 2008

• New Listings are down 20% compared to the same week one year ago: 2,156 versus 2,700.

• For the three months ending April 12, 2008, the number of new listings are down 9.3% compared to the same period in 2007.
• Pending sales were down only 3.8% for the week and down now only 15.1% compared to the same three month period in 2007.

Weekly New Listings Table below: note the trend has generally been downward for the number of new listings each week.  This is good news for the market as supply has continued to be a problem.

Pending activity is starting to improve.  For the past twelve months, we have generally been lower each week by 15-30% compared to the same week the year before.  We need to consistently start to see week to week activity where pending sales are down in the negative single digits compared to the year previously before we’ll have a sense that perhaps the market has turned.  By the time we get there though, it would seem to me that there will still be bargains out there but they may be harder to come by.

For more market information, check out the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors web site.