The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors just updated all of their real estate data through the month of February 2009.  This is part of their monthly report called “The 100.”

For cities like Medina, it’s not particularly valuable at this time of year because there have been so few sales so far this year.  It’s much more insightful for cities such as Plymouth, Maple Grove, Minnetonka, Edina and St. Louis Park.  (Click on the underlined cities to link directly to the February report for that particular city).

What’s interesting to note about these cities listed right above is the overall continued decline in closed sales transactions.

Closed Transactions: YTD ’09 vs. same period ’08

• Medina:    0% decline
• Plymouth:  -28.4%
• Maple Grove: – 27.8%
• Minnetonka: + 10%
• Edina:  -8.3%
• St. Louis Park: – 37.8%

Median Sales Prices YTD vs. same period ’08

• Medina: $385,000 down 24.8%
• Plymouth: $225,000 down 12.1%
• Maple Grove: $210,000 down 12.1%
• Minnetonka: $213,000 down 28.9%
• Edina: $300,000 down 28.6%
• St. Louis Park: $227,100 increase of .9%

The Case-Shiller Index which I report on monthly, shows that the Twin Cities is down 18.4% compared to a year ago.  Given that the transactions are skewing in the direction of foreclosures and homes priced under $150,000, it makes sense that that number would be that high.   In many of our second ring suburbs, we tend to see prices down 10-15% depending upon the individual city.

I do think it’s interesting to note St. Louis Park.  It likely has the most homogeneous housing stock in the western metro of the Twin Cities.  I don’t have the exact numbers, but I suspect the typical 1942-1946 built 1.5 story represents about 75% of the overall housing stock.   St. Louis Park continues to hold it’s own in pricing.  The one big concern there is the really significant drop in closed transactions at 37.8%.  I don’t know what that’s about, but will continue to monitor that over the coming months to see if that starts to improve.