http://www.TwinCitiesUSA.com/video/Market-Report-04-16-11

STEVE:  Hi, my name is Steve Westmark.  Thanks for watching my video blog this week.  This week, I’m going to bring you the most recent statistics that came out for the March sales and listings that happened in 2011.  As you look at the first chart, you’re going to see what’s been going on in our pending sales area.  It shows that in 2009, we had 10,500 sales in the first three months of the year.  In 2010, we had over 11,000 sales.  In fact, both those years there was a tax credit for first-time homebuyers.  And this year, we’re off by about 11% in unit sales.

 

The next graph that I want to have you look at is called the pending sales by price range.  And here’s a real interesting fact that’s happened this year compared to last year.  When there was a tax credit, you will see that there was a lot more sales going on in the lower price ranges.  And now this year, there’s more sales going on in the upper price ranges maybe because it’s more of a balance-type market.  So you’ll see in fact the million dollar buyers, though it’s only 285 buyers who have bought this year, that’s up by 24% compared to last year versus the 120,000 buyer this year is down by 17%, but it’s over 2,000 sales less.

 

The next sheet I’m showing you is the month’s supply of inventory.  And what that will show you is what’s going on in the marketplace as far as the inventory by price range.  And you might notice that the $120,000 price range there’s an 8-month supply of properties out there, so it’s a great opportunity for first-time homebuyers at 120, 150, 190 even going up to 350,000 that the inventory this year is larger than last year, so there’s a great choice of housing.  The inventory has begun to shrink at the higher price range, but it’s still at a million dollars over two years of inventory.

 

The next graph that you’ll see is to follow all the way along the bottom, and it shows you what’s happened with our average price range.  And you’ll see that we kind of peaked last year during the tax credit, and then we’ve seen a decline in prices so that last year at this time, we had $197,000 average sale price.  And this year, we’re at $184,000 average sale price.  The next graph that I’m showing you is showing you the foreclosures and short sales that are happening in the Twin Cities.  And you’ll notice towards the end of the graph that really when you add together the short sale and the bank-owned properties that about half the sellers today are banks or a short sale type of transaction.

 

Where last year at this time, there was a greater amount of traditional type of sellers.  Sellers are having to be in today’s market much more looking much closer at the lender-mediated type of sale in their pricing and position.  The last graph I’m going to show you is in the area of housing affordability index.  After I’ve gone through all these graphs talking about the unit sales being down, the average sales prices being down, is there anything positive to look at in this marketplace?  And the housing affordability in the Twin Cities is a huge positive.

 

The two biggest things that are causing that is that the prices are so good today in all price ranges that you can find wonderful prosperities to purchase and second the interest rate continues about 5% at just a phenomenally low interest rate in the marketplace.  Thanks so much for watching my blog this week.  I look forward to helping you in your real estate needs. 

STEVE:  Hi, my name is Steve Westmark.  Thanks for watching my video blog this week.  This week, I’m going to bring you the most recent statistics that came out for the March sales and listings that happened in 2011.  As you look at the first chart, you’re going to see what’s been going on in our pending sales area.  It shows that in 2009, we had 10,500 sales in the first three months of the year.  In 2010, we had over 11,000 sales.  In fact, both those years there was a tax credit for first-time homebuyers.  And this year, we’re off by about 11% in unit sales.

 

The next graph that I want to have you look at is called the pending sales by price range.  And here’s a real interesting fact that’s happened this year compared to last year.  When there was a tax credit, you will see that there was a lot more sales going on in the lower price ranges.  And now this year, there’s more sales going on in the upper price ranges maybe because it’s more of a balance-type market.  So you’ll see in fact the million dollar buyers, though it’s only 285 buyers who have bought this year, that’s up by 24% compared to last year versus the 120,000 buyer this year is down by 17%, but it’s over 2,000 sales less.

 

The next sheet I’m showing you is the month’s supply of inventory.  And what that will show you is what’s going on in the marketplace as far as the inventory by price range.  And you might notice that the $120,000 price range there’s an 8-month supply of properties out there, so it’s a great opportunity for first-time homebuyers at 120, 150, 190 even going up to 350,000 that the inventory this year is larger than last year, so there’s a great choice of housing.  The inventory has begun to shrink at the higher price range, but it’s still at a million dollars over two years of inventory.

 

The next graph that you’ll see is to follow all the way along the bottom, and it shows you what’s happened with our average price range.  And you’ll see that we kind of peaked last year during the tax credit, and then we’ve seen a decline in prices so that last year at this time, we had $197,000 average sale price.  And this year, we’re at $184,000 average sale price.  The next graph that I’m showing you is showing you the foreclosures and short sales that are happening in the Twin Cities.  And you’ll notice towards the end of the graph that really when you add together the short sale and the bank-owned properties that about half the sellers today are banks or a short sale type of transaction.

 

Where last year at this time, there was a greater amount of traditional type of sellers.  Sellers are having to be in today’s market much more looking much closer at the lender-mediated type of sale in their pricing and position.  The last graph I’m going to show you is in the area of housing affordability index.  After I’ve gone through all these graphs talking about the unit sales being down, the average sales prices being down, is there anything positive to look at in this marketplace?  And the housing affordability in the Twin Cities is a huge positive.