The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors has released its latest report this week and incredibly, the pending sales number continues to show better year over year performance as it has done for nearly the past 4 months. This is despite the really difficult economic news.
(Click to enlarge the graph)
Now it does appear that much of the activity is based upon buyers swooping in to purchase “lender-mediated” or distress sale properties. In fact, Jeff Allen’s note says that some 54.4% of the pendings last week were on “lender-mediated”/distress sales and that 43.2% of those were for properties priced under $150,000. (And we wonder why our median sales price is down 18% YTD?)
The other point worth noting is that of the new listings coming on the market 41.1% are lender-mediated (i.e. foreclosures, short sales, corporate owned).
Here’s the report and commentary:
As the fall temperature persists at near freezing levels, home sales activity remains stubbornly higher than it was a year ago, despite weakened consumer confidence and a sluggish economy. Pending sales for the week ending November 8 were 16.9 percent higher than the same week in 2007, and over the last three months have been a robust 26.6 percent higher. Lender-mediated foreclosures and short sales in the lower price ranges are driving the swing upwards; 54.4 percent of the most recent reporting week’s pending sales were lender-mediated and 43.2 percent were priced under $150,000.
Supply remains down from last year but appears to have reached a plateau of sorts. We have had roughly 9 percent fewer total homes for sale than at the same point last year for the last 5 consecutive weeks. New supply coming onto the market continues to slow its velocity and will likely remain commensurate in pace with fourth-quarter 2007. A total of 41.1 percent of new listings over the past week were lender-mediated.