Below is a graphical view of the plunge in median home sales prices in the Twin Cities over the past two years. According to data just released by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, the Twin Cities median home prices are down 19% compared to November 2007 and down 23% compared to November 2006. The information for the immediate chart below can be found in the Monthly Indicators Report on page 6.
(Click on graph to enlarge)
But if you look under the hood at the data that makes up this chart you’ll see the explosion in sales of homes under $120,000 over the past year. The table below is something the association publishes regularly and it’s a rolling 12 month report.  You can see the dramatic increase in properties selling under $120,000. This of course, is where a great many of the foreclosures, short sales, REOs have been. As I mention to people, it’s good to see the cheaper properties selling because eventually they will be gone and the buyers can begin to move up the food chain. For now though, the big interest is in the cheapest properties possible.
I broke down the data for homes under $120,000 because they have seen such a large increase in the past 12 months compared to the previous 12 months. Volume for that segment is up 4439 transactions or 216%.
(Click to enlarge the tables)
Now when we combine the under $120,000 category along with the $120-$150k category the numbers are even more extraordinary.
6,235 more homes were sold under $150,000 during the most recent 12 month period compared to the previous 12 months. Overall home sales were flat so this is a massive increase on the very lowest end of the market. That’s driving the overall median price down dramatically. Of course, it doesn’t help that there just aren’t as many buyers today for homes over $300,000 but the driver is the low priced home sales.
Here’s the full Twin Cities Housing Outlook Report updated through November 2008. It’s 17 pages filled with excellent data and easy to read graphs. It’s worth a quick look.