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September 15, 2009 - According to my beleaguered financial planner, the stock market typically dives before a recession begins and then begins to recover before the economy itself comes out of recession. Federal Reserve Chairman and other economists have declared this recession ‘very likely over’ so where does that leave the real estate market? Let’s take a look. In the overall economy, the stock market, industrial production and retail sales are all on the rise while job losses have slowed. In the Twin Cities real estate market, we’ve seen improvement in the most important metrics since April of this year. The number of homes for sale in the Minneapolis, St. Paul area and the average ‘Days on Market’ before they sell are shrinking. Buyer activity (showings) and pending sales are increasing. Most importantly, the median sales price in the Twin Cities has grown from $154,125 in March of this year to $175,000 according to the Minneapolis Association of Realtors. Buyers still have a lot of listings to choose from, low interest rates and the $8,000 First Time Homebuyer Tax credit to choose from which are driving buyer activity. All of these stats suggest we may have ‘hit bottom’ and begun a recovery in the Twin Cities real estate market. The wild card in all of this is still the foreclosures and short sales that haven’t come on the market. There are rumors of another bubble coming down the pipeline that could increase supply and stall this recovery. As with most things, the future is uncertain, but for the time being, our local real estate market looks better than it has in some time.

There are also rumors that the First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit may be extended. But as the law stands now, it is scheduled to end on November 30, 2009. So we are telling all our first time homebuyers that the time to act is now. For sellers, particularly with houses priced under $200,000, now is the time to do what it takes to get your house sold to take advantage of the increased activity. We don’t know what will happen when the buyer tax credit expires but we do know that November and December are typically two of the slowest months of the year for real estate sales. As always, feel free to contact us with any questions.