Maple Grove Real Estate Update March 2013

I would like to share with you today specifically about the Maple Grove real estate market for March of 2013. It was an interesting month. It actually had a couple of mixed numbers. For the number of houses sold, we sold about five more houses than in February, right in line as we are starting to pick up. Compared to last year in March, we were off quite a bit, about 27% off. I think that has a lot to do with our weather. If you recall last year we had 80 degrees last year on St. Patrick’s Day. That absolutely does have an effect. People just don’t want to go out and look at houses when it’s snowing and cold and dreary. It’s just the nature of who we are. So I would expect it to be down a little bit, but it is still a very hot market and when all this ugly weather has left us, we will be selling houses like mad, as long as there are houses available to sell.

As far as putting new houses on the market, last year in March of 2012 we put 165 houses on the Maple Grove market. This year was 181. February was only about 59 houses, but I think that was a little bit of an anomaly there.

Price points, we are about in the same spot.  Last year we averaged about $255,000 in Maple Grove, and this year we are at $246,600, so very close. We’ve popped up from last month about $13,000. Last month we were at average of $233,000.

Another thing that popped up that we should probably keep our eye on is in February, of all the transactions in Maple Grove, 29% of them involved distressed properties. In March, it was 36% of the transactions that involved distressed properties; short sales or bank owned properties. I don’t know that this is a long term trend, but definitely something to keep an eye on.

If you are looking at buying or selling in Maple Grove, pay attention to the month’s supply of inventory. Last year it was a seller’s market at 4.2 month’s supply. If you remember the month’s supply index, if we are anything less than 6, it’s a seller’s market meaning there are more buyers than houses for sale. Now we have dropped all the way down to 2.6. So, it’s almost to the point of a crazy seller’s market, so if you have a home you are looking to sell, now is an excellent time to get it on the market. You will be getting a good price for it, and if it’s a move in ready home, you coiuld be getting offers very quickly.  

I just experienced this with clients of mine who I am helping buy a home right now. They were looking at a house that was on the market for two days and we were going to go look at the house in the evening and the listing agent called me and told me that he already had two more than full price offers in on the property, but said I was more than welcome to take a peek at the place a little earlier and put in another offer to be presented in a multiple offer situation. That is the norm right now. That is the real estate market in Maple Grove right now as well as pretty much all over the Twin Cities.