MAAR's Weekly Market Activity Report for the Week of June 25, 2007

Home sellers in the Twin Cities housing market continue to face a harsh reality: There are too few buyers for the number of homes on the market. Buyer activity remains at levels consistent with the start of this decade, with 871 units sold pending for the week ending June 16—19.6 percent behind the same week in 2006. Builders and home sellers appear to be getting the message that now is a difficult time to sell as they have scaled back new listings relative to a year ago, but year-over-year declines in listings are not keeping pace with larger declines on the buying side. Weekly new listings are down 7.0 percent compared to this time last year. The message not being heard by buyers is that now may be the time to buy. With plentiful inventory, reasonable interest rates and slightly depressed home prices, consumers may look back and see 2007 as the bottom of the market—the year they should have purchased a home. Some subsections of our regional housing market are experiencing the change in market dynamics differently than others. For instance, closed home sales in New Brighton are ahead of last year by 8.6 percent, while sales are down 46.5 percent in Brooklyn Center. To understand how the changing market is affecting different communities in our region, Send me an email at darwinbarker@edinarealty.com and I can provide information from your area.