The Twin Cities Housing market has seen some impressive highs and puzzling lows this year. Unfortunately, the lows have persisted through summer, despite low interest rates and a diverse and affordable housing stock.

Although New Listings are about where they were last year (near 1,600), Pending Sales remain as low as they've been all summer. The week ending August 14 bore just 631 signed purchase agreements, down 38.5 percent compared to last year. The three-month total for pendings is 8,018 compared to 13,830 last year, which is an even heftier decline of 42.0 percent.

Active Listings are up to 27,784, 8.1 percent more than last year. Growing inventory is not the result of too many homes coming on the market but rather a product of not enough homes going off the market. With Months Supply of Inventory now at 7.8, it still remains a buyer's market out there.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

The Twin Cities Housing market has seen some impressive highs and puzzling lows this year. Unfortunately, the lows have persisted through summer, despite low interest rates and a diverse and affordable housing stock.

Although New Listings are about where they were last year (near 1,600), Pending Sales remain as low as they've been all summer. The week ending August 14 bore just 631 signed purchase agreements, down 38.5 percent compared to last year. The three-month total for pendings is 8,018 compared to 13,830 last year, which is an even heftier decline of 42.0 percent.

Active Listings are up to 27,784, 8.1 percent more than last year. Growing inventory is not the result of too many homes coming on the market but rather a product of not enough homes going off the market. With Months Supply of Inventory now at 7.8, it still remains a buyer's market out there.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

Where has the Twin Cities real estate market been and where is it heading? This monthly summary provides an overview of current trends and projections for future activity. Narrated by Mark Allen (Chief Executive Officer, Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS®), audio recorded by Zach Foty and video produced by Chelsie Lopez.

The Twin Cities housing market has found itself in a bit of a holding pattern in recent months, and July is no exception. The $175,000 median sales price was a 2.3 percent increase over July 2009. Pending sales in July were down 37.6 percent compared to last year, which is certainly less than ideal but expected. Due to weakened buyer demand, inventory grew modestly to 27,249 active listings, an increase of 5.4 percent over last year.

Demand has stabilized and should slowly return in the coming months. We hope that it returns to the market before prices have a chance to respond to the growing inventory.

Traditional sellers enjoyed a 5.0 percent price increase to $222,500, foreclosure prices remained flat at $119,000 and short sales posted a 3.5 percent price gain to $147,000. The traditional and foreclosure submarkets had a significant decline in pending sales, while short sales actually had a small increase. There were 3,226 signed purchase agreements in July, a decrease of 1,948 contracts from last July. Seller activity also slowed, with 6,926 new properties coming onto the market.

All active listings experienced a minor spike. The supply-demand ratio increased 63.5 percent to 8.64, primarily due to declining demand and not a surplus of new product. This means that there are about 8.6 homes available per buyer for August.

Although the tax credit ended over three months ago, its negative externalities are finally beginning to pass. March and April enjoyed a big boost in sales performance at the cost of May, June, July, and most likely several additional months.

The economy is currently driving the housing market and not vice versa. The housing sector once generated corresponding construction, manufacturing and other jobs which in turn fueled economic growth. That hasn't been the case of late.

From The Skinny.

For the week ending July 31, New Listings in the Twin Cities region were down 4.3 percent from last year, with 1,566 new properties coming onto the market. Pending Sales were down 34.3 percent from a year ago, as 651 purchase agreements were signed.

Over the last three months, there have been 13.4 fewer new listings than there were during the same period a year ago and 38.7 percent fewer pendings. This means increasing inventory. There were 27,627 Active Listings for Sale as of August 9, up 6.6 percent from the same point in 2009.

The growth in inventory, combined with slowed sales demand, means that the number of homes available per buyer in August has jumped to 8.64, up dramatically from the mark of 5.28 seen a year ago.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

Effort designed to encourage principal write-downs for responsible borrowers

WASHINGTON – In an effort to help responsible homeowners who owe more on their mortgage than the value of their property, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development today provided details on the adjustment to its refinance program which was announced earlier this year that will enable lenders to provide additional refinancing options to homeowners who owe more than their home is worth. Starting September 7, 2010, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) will offer certain ‘underwater’ non-FHA borrowers who are current on their existing mortgage and whose lenders agree to write off at least ten percent of the unpaid principal balance of the first mortgage, the opportunity to qualify for a new FHA-insured mortgage.

http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page/portal/HUD/press/press_releases_media_advisories/2010/HUDNo.10-173

The Pending Home Sales Index,* a forward-looking indicator, declined 2.6 percent to 75.7 based on contracts signed in June from an upwardly revised level of 77.7 in May, and is 18.6 percent below June 2009 when it was 93.0. The data reflects contracts and not closings, which normally occur with a lag time of one or two months.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said lower home sales are expected in the short term. “There could be a couple of additional months of slow home-sales activity before picking up later in the year, provided the job market continues to improve,” he said. “Over the short term, inventory will look high relative to home sales. However, since home prices have come down to fundamentally justifiable levels, there isn’t likely to be any meaningful change to national home values. Some local markets continue to show strengthening prices.”

Whether May or June or July, we're finding it difficult to report anything new to you for the warm weather months of 2010. Week-in and week-out, we're showing a recurring pattern of behavior in the Twin Cities housing market, and the week ending July 24 isn't much different. Pending Sales are at 628 for the week, down 37.8 percent compared to last year, and Active Listings for Sale are at 27,661, up 5.4 percent.

These percentage changes represent a bit of a holding pattern. In fact, we've been here since the expiration of the tax credit. There was a minor bump in Active Listings but it wasn't sufficient to convince us that we're heading toward another oversupply situation.

Days on Market and Months Supply of Inventory continue to indicate a favorable market for home buyers. But with interest rates remaining at historic lows, there appears to be no sense of urgency. We may see a minor kerfuffle in the market before the school year begins, but 1,000-plus pendings per week in August doesn't seem likely, let alone 800.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

Whether May or June or July, we're finding it difficult to report anything new to you for the warm weather months of 2010. Week-in and week-out, we're showing a recurring pattern of behavior in the Twin Cities housing market, and the week ending July 24 isn't much different. Pending Sales are at 628 for the week, down 37.8 percent compared to last year, and Active Listings for Sale are at 27,661, up 5.4 percent.

These percentage changes represent a bit of a holding pattern. In fact, we've been here since the expiration of the tax credit. There was a minor bump in Active Listings but it wasn't sufficient to convince us that we're heading toward another oversupply situation.

Days on Market and Months Supply of Inventory continue to indicate a favorable market for home buyers. But with interest rates remaining at historic lows, there appears to be no sense of urgency. We may see a minor kerfuffle in the market before the school year begins, but 1,000-plus pendings per week in August doesn't seem likely, let alone 800.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.