February 2013 Maple Grove Real Estate Market Stats

The market stats for February 2013 in Maple Grove are in. Interesting dynamics last month; we actually dropped the number of sold houses by about 30%. We went from 79 in January to 51 sold in February, which is slightly less than the number of Maple Grove homes sold in February of 2012. When we look at the new houses that went on the Maple Grove market, we lined up pretty good from February of last year to February of this year, and it was a significant jump from January. We actually almost doubled the number. In January we put 59 houses on the market and February, this past month, we put 115 houses on the market.

Another thing that was really interesting was the average sales price. In February of 2012 our average sales price was $203,577. Last month, that average sales price increased to $261,634.That’s almost a 30% increase from the same time last year, and comparable to January of this year, we are up 12% in the average sales price. So, that is a really great thing for our sellers in Maple Grove. If you are looking to buy in Maple Grove, it tells you that the values are going up. Now, we aren’t going to get 12% per month appreciation, that’s unheard of. We will probably come back down, but in my opinion, I think we will still be seeing appreciation of homes in the upcoming months.

One thing to very much keep your eye on is the month’s supply. The month’s supply shows us if we are in a buyer’s market or a seller’s market. Right now, it dropped again this past month. In January it was 2.6 months and in February, it was 2.5 months of supply. Last February it was 3.9 months of supply. The general rule of thumb is anytime you are below 6 months; you are in a sellers’ market, meaning the sellers are driving the market. We see that reflected in a lot of different areas. We see a lot of folks coming into multiple offer situations, or putting their house on the market at 10am and having offers by 6pm. I’ve had a couple of those situations just recently.

So if you are wondering if now is the right time to buy or sell, I would say it is, but make sure that you are ready to go. If you are a seller, make sure you are working with an agent that knows what to do to get your house ready to sell, so you can get those strong offers right away. If you are a buyer, make sure that you are pre-qualified and working with an agent that knows the current Maple Grove market so you can be one of the the first in these homes as they get listed, and if it’s the right house for you, make sure that you put a strong offer in so yours goes to the top of the heap.