Hint: What’s In Between a Buyer’s and Seller’s Market? Along with most large metro housing markets, the Twin Cities has favored Sellers for so long — about 5 years now — that Buyers and Seller (if not their agents) can be forgiven for forgetting that there are two other kinds of markets. The first is...Read More
“The (Realtor) Parking Lot Indicator” Yeah, yeah, I know all the official statistics that purportedly capture what the housing market’s doing at any given moment. The list includes both year-over-year and month-to-month changes in “New Listings,” “Pending Sales,” and “Closed Sales,” plus the Case-Shiller Home Price Index, NAR’s sales statistics, etc.. Here’s another, albeit less...Read More
The Ultimate Reality Test? Reality “And yet, it moves.” –What Galileo Galilei supposedly murmured on his death-bed, after being forced by the Church to recant his belief that the earth moves around the sun. What is the ultimate rebuttal to housing bears, who maintain that the housing market isn’t going up, but even if it is,...Read More
Confusing Housing Statistics “U.S. Home Sales Fell 26% in October.” —The New York Times (11/23/2010) “Home Sales Fell 2.2% in October.” —The Wall Street Journal (11/23/2010) So which is it? Both, actually. Home sales fell 26% in October, 2010 compared with October, 2009. And they dropped 2.2% compared with the preceding month (September, 2010). However,...Read More
Post-April 30 Hangover Here are some late June housing statistics (analysis costs extra). All info is for Edina Realty. –Drop in showings since expiration of Buyer tax credits April 30: 40%–Drop in “Pending” sales since expiration of Buyer tax credits: 40%.–Percentage of Buyers who are first-time: 48%–Percentage of homes sales under $250k: 80% The narrative...Read More
