During the crash of the housing market and the great recession we kept trying to predict when the housing market would bottom out. We actually hit bottom twice in the twin cities once in late 2009 and again in mid 2011. Starting in about the second quarter of 2011 the local housing market started to improve as home sales increased and we saw prices go up in some neighborhoods. The housing market improved and in peaked in October of 2013 and home sales have been going down ever since.
We still have shortages of homes for sale in some price ranges and neighborhoods and we still have people who want to sell but who can not because they owe too much money on their home. The housing market isn’t horrible but it isn’t going to be as good as it was last year either.
It is possible that last winter’s polar vortex is at least partly to blame. The home sales that close in April were initiated in March and even in February but that does not completely explain what looks like a trend of fewer home sales.
The chart shows the number of home sales in St. Paul for each month starting in April of 2011 and ending in April of 2014 using data from the NorthstarMLS which is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed and has more local home sale data than any other single source.
What about in terms of pricing? Is this market holding up? A decline in closed sales could just be a result of lower inventory, or am I interpreting this incorrectly? Then from a sellers perspective the market is only getting better. Thoughts?
The inventory of homes is higher than it was last year. Prices are not going up as much as they did last year. Yes the market is getting better . . but very slowly.