As winter continues its streak of cold and snow, sales activity in the Twin Cities housing market is moving along at a pace you'd expect for the season and at about the same pace as a year ago. Pending sales for the week ending January 30 came in at 650, down very slightly from the mark of 673 seen during the same week last year. Over the last three months, there have been 7,038 signed purchase agreements, up a sliver-sized 0.7 percent from a year ago.

Despite the tax credit being made available to current homeowners, new listing activity has yet to show any noticeable jump. The 1,584 new listings for the most recent reporting week represent a dip of 3.1 percent from a year ago. Total inventory of available homes is still down from last year by 16.5 percent.

In related news, Days on Market Until Sale is still dropping while the Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale is still growing. While that's good news on both fronts for home sellers in general, different price points and neighborhoods are experiencing dramatically different market conditions.


-MAAR

Twin Cities Weekly Real Estate Market Report

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The January 2010 Twin Cities housing market has shaped up to be nearly identical to January 2009.

Pending sales are down slightly from a year ago, but not by much.
New listings are down slightly from a year ago, but not much.
Inventory is rising slowly, but not much.
After the roller coaster ride the local market has experienced over the last four years, perhaps "not by much" is a welcome respite.

There were 558 signed purchase agreements for the week ending January 23, down 2.3 percent from a year ago.
New listings posted 1,522 units, down 0.6 percent from a year ago.
The current inventory of active listings is 20,629, down 17.5 percent from a year ago.
The February 2010 Supply-Demand Ratio sits at 6.99, which means there are 6.99 homes available for each buyer. That's a drop of 8.5 percent from a year ago and the lowest February mark since 2006.

-MAAR