It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I sold my car with a Minnesota State Park sticker that is good until May 2025. I never used the
sticker which is alright. It was an aspirational state park sticker.
I feel the same way about my passport which is good until April 2027 and my TSA pre-check which is good until sometime in 2028, and hasn’t been used since I renewed it last year. I aspire to use them both.
We all need hopes, dreams, and goals.
Here is a look at Minnesota home sales in August 2024
Buyers might be waiting for an interest rate reduction. If that happens activity will pick up. Houses will sell faster, and home prices will rise due to increased demand.
Year over year everything was up except closed sales which were down.
According to Minnesota Realtors:
“While closings were down in August, lower mortgage rates and monthly payments are expected to drive market activity in the coming months. If rates continue to fall as the number of homes for sale rise, pent-up buyer demand may be unleashed, driving sales and potentially signaling a return to a more competitive market.
Inflation is now at its lowest level since February 2021. Though shelter costs remain elevated, the balance between housing supply and demand has normalized back to pre-pandemic levels.
“As we look towards the upcoming months, we continue to be optimistic. It all comes down to affordability and availability,” said Geri Theis, President of Minnesota Realtors®. “September activity should be strong with the lower interest rates, but August numbers will not reflect that yet. Fortunately, given the increase of homes on the market, our buyers may find some relief.”
August Year-Over-Year Summary of Key Market Indicators:
Realtors are always optimistic.
Many of the old houses in St. Paul have wooden flooring. If an old house has worn carpeting consider removing the carpeting an exposing the hardwood floors. Even if the floors are in rough shape they are better than worn carpeting.
Home buyers often prefer hardwood over carpeting. My home doesn’t have any carpeting in it. Hardwood floors and wool rugs look better and are more sanitary than carpeting. They last longer and are easier to maintain.
Bare floors also make rooms look bigger, less cluttered and cleaner.
If the house doesn’t have hardwood floors worn carpeting should be replaced.
It is still Summer but Fall isn’t far off and it is a short season here in the North.
If you are a homeowner and live in Minnesota now would be a great time to have your boiler or furnace serviced, inspected and or tuned up. There is still plenty of time to get it fixed or replaced before it gets cold and it will get cold.
Usually, there are specials this time of year too for those who get it done before the busy heating season.
I see a lot of houses with old furnaces that have been well-maintained. They really do last longer with regular maintenance. Personally, I am not a fan of the service plans but I am a fan of service.
If you are selling your home this fall or winter it is a good idea to have the furnace or boiler serviced and save the receipt or even tape it to the furnace. Buyers who are closing on homes this fall should either have the furnace tuned up or ensure that the seller has already taken care of it.
As for getting the air ducts cleaned that might not be needed. The dirt that collects in the air ducts pretty much stays there but it can be removed if needed.
Don’t get me wrong. Homes for sale are in short supply throughout the metro area, but right now the supply is higher than at any time since before the pandemic. The housing market strongly favors sellers yet the graph does show a trend.
In a balanced housing market we would have a six-month supply of homes. In a market that favors buyers, there would be more than a six month supply.
Here is St. Paul there is just over a two-month supply of homes for sale. I’ll got out on a limb and predict that the supply of houses on the market will shrink along with mortgage interest rates.
It is Friday and Fridays are for fun. I remember when I went away to college. There was no internet, facetime or cell phones. Maybe there were “car phones” but the average family did not own one.
Most of our parents were not “snow plow” parents. We had to deal with our own stuff and while away at college if we wanted to talk to the folks we used the one shared phone in the phone room in our dormitory. There was one phone on each floor.
When parents called if someone answered they had to find us. Sometimes they just stood in the hallway and yelled. When something went wrong we had to handle it ourselves. In fact, as a young adult, I took pride in being able to manage my life without help from mommy and daddy.
Times have changed. College students and their parents keep in touch with each other with daily calls, text messages, and video chats. I feel lucky to have experienced college the way that I did. I graduated and was ready for adulting.
I also experienced this as a parent when my daughter taught in France for a school year. Our only communication was via email and a long-distance calling card. Sometimes I worried but I knew she could do it and she did.