August 2014 Minnesota Association of Realtors (MNAR) Market Update

Statewide Minnesota home listings in August were down 1.8% while the Twin Cities area remained flat year over year. The median sales price statewide was up 4.3% at 189.5k, while the Twin Cities saw home prices rise 7.1% to 212k year over year. Months of inventory was at 6.3 for the state, representing a buyer’s market, and 4.2 for the Twin Cities area, giving a slight edge to Sellers. There’s still a great deal of psychology in the real estate market, and good decisions require good analysis behind them. A recent study by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) showed that Minnesota statewide pricing is still approximately 11.4% off its peak of June 2006.

All of this data points to the following. If you’re considering selling your home, it’s the right time to have a realtor provide some comparable pricing of homes in your area. Then use the time to determine which pre-sale and staging activities you want to invest in before putting your home on the market. If you’re a potential buyer, timing is still very good with interest rates remaining at historical lows.

We’re in a much more balanced real estate market atmosphere, which means inflation and real personal income will tie directly to home appreciation rates. For Minnesota, we continue to hover in the low 2% range for real personal income and we’re seeing this reflected in home appreciation rates.