Summer Reveals Decline in Home Sales
The average cost to buy a home in the Twin Cities has dropped slightly in the past year. But home buyers still aren’t getting by cheap.
“You talk to some of the buyers right now and tell that things are slowing down, they’ll think you’re nuts because they put in five, six offers and can’t get a house,” said Jerry Moscowitz, president of Minneapolis Area Realtors.
Overall sales of single-family homes have declined compared to last year according to data from Minneapolis Area Realtors.
Across the Twin Cities, homes are selling for slightly less than they did in 2022. But that drop in price isn’t huge. For the region, median home sale prices dropped 1 percent in May. In Brooklyn Park, the median sale price of homes dropped around 7 percent compared to May 2022.
“The market is what I would call ‘stable,'” Moscowitz said. “We’ve seen a slowdown from where we were in the later half of [2020], 2021 and the first half of 2022. Which is really a market that we hadn’t seen before. What we have right now is a market that is closer to what we had in 2019, which nobody was calling a bad market.”
Overall sales of single family homes have declined compared to last year according to data from Minneapolis Area Realtors.
Homes are also selling for around 101 percent of their list price. Last year, they were selling for 104 percent of their asking price.
Pending sales fell 19 percent in May compared to the previous year, while closed sales dropped 28 percent.
“People are out there looking — they’re anxious,” Moscowitz said. “When something comes up that looks like it might fit, they are anxious to get out and see it.”
Fewer homes are listed on the market compared with last year.
“We have seen some sellers maybe staying put a bit longer because there’s an adjustment to the interest rate that they had seen for a couple of years,” Moscowitz said.
In Brooklyn Park, there were 97 new listings this May. Last year, there were 150.
“I think what we’re running into right now is, the person that’s in a house right now that’s getting ready to sell really wants to see another house that is going to make the move worthwhile,” Moscowitz said.
Metrowide, homes are spending more time on the market before they sell. Houses are spending an average of 38 days on the market, or a median of 13 days.
“The houses that are really in good shape, don’t have the deferred maintenance, they’re just selling really quickly,” Moscowitz said.
Fixer uppers are no longer selling as quickly as they once did, according to Moscowitz.
“They’re maybe taking a harder look at whether or not that house makes sense for them,” he said.
However, it remains a seller’s market.
“If you’re a buyer, I would not hold off,” Moscowitz said. “I’d be prepared as much as possible. If you like the house, the odds are still really good that somebody else is going to like it … it’s still supply and demand and we still have a shortage of houses.”
