Showings are down and sales are up in the Twin Cities. Why is this happening?

Home inventory is way down and buyers are out in full force. Due to the lack of inventory the buyers don’t have many homes coming up in their searches to actually go out and look at. Since there is less to choose from they are looking at fewer homes and then making their decision to buy. Just a year ago, buyers had a seemingly endless supply of homes that fit their search criteria but now they are lucky if a few come up. They are not waiting for something better to come along as homes are selling fast and if you don’t act quickly, meaning within a few days, they are often gone/sold.

You can click on either chart for a larger version.

The Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors has released the market statistics for the week ending March 9, 2013.  Interest rates have increased slightly but that has not scared off the buyers.  Sellers still appear afraid to put their homes on the market resulting in the continuation of a shortage of homes available for sale.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending March 9:
• New Listings decreased 6.1% to 1,361
• Pending Sales increased 10.9% to 1,019
• Inventory decreased 30.7% to 12,476

Where has the Twin Cities Real Estate Market been and where is it headed. Take a look at the February monthly skinny for a summary of trends and projections for the real estate market in the Twin Cities.

Below are the monthly market statistics for October 2012 for the Twin Cities metro area. The change from a year ago is especially interesting.