homes

St. Paul Home sales and Prices by Neighborhood

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

Numbers are a great way to start the week and these numbers represent home sales in the city of St. Paul, MN by neighborhood for the Month of March 2014.  Even though temperatures were below average home sales and prices were about what I would have expected for the month. Generally as we head into spring the number of home sales increases city wide and the prices go up. I noticed in the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood, and the Payne -Phalen neighborhood  the number of homes that went pending is greater than the number that were put on the market.

The median home sale price for St Paul was around 144K in January, and it was 153,500 for March. The average home sale price is also up by about 4% since January.

Table
March 2014 numbers

Even though 837 homes are currently for sale in St. Paul many of them have contingent offers on them leaving about 652 with no offers.

The numbers used to make this table came from the Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS) which is deemed reliable but not guaranteed.  There is no better source for local home sale data.  No numbers were harmed in the creation of this table.  They were instead imported into a MS Xcel spreadsheet where they were carefully sorted, totaled and averaged. 

For more local data for home sales in St. Paul, MN please see the Local Market Conditions and Home Prices category.

Be ready to buy

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

 This is the little chart I see each morning when I open our MLS database.  It shows the activity for the last 7 days.  It is very unusual to see the same number of new listings as there are new pending sales.  basically it means the 44 homes went on the market in St. Paul in the last 7 days and during that same time 44 homes that were on the market received offers that were accepted by the seller.  That means that we cobbled up 44 homes for sale even though one of the last 7 days was a holiday. 

skitch
Hot sheet

There are 17 expired listings.  Those are homes that were on the market in St. Paul but that did not sell before the contract with the real estate agent ran out. My guess is most of those sellers will want to wait until spring which is kind of silly because the homes won’t sell unless they are on the market and this is the slow time of the year so they could just list with me . . I am still offering 10% off of my commission for those who list with me before the end of the month.  We need more homes on the market.  

The inventory of homes on the market is shockingly low.  There are only 1002 homes on the market in St. Paul and only 787 without offers on them.  If you are a home buyer you can still find bargains but if you are not pre-approved for a home loan you are not ready to buy and so someone else will get the home that you had your heart set on and they will get to take advantage of the low interest rates and home prices.  

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How does your home look on the interent?

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

 How does your home look on the internet?  How it looks really matters because most home buyers are going to see you home on the internet before they see it in person.  In fact for home buyers and agents alike the internet serves as a screening tool.  We can screen out the really ugly and unappealing homes.  

Just about any home can look amazing on the internet but most do not.  One thing sellers can and should do is ask their agent to send them a link to the information about their home in the NorthstarMLS.  The same pictures and information will end up on numerous web sites.   

If the pictures don’t make your home look amazing consider hiring a photographer or ask your agent to hire one.   Pictures can and should include entire rooms not just parts of rooms and they should be well lit and never dark and dingy.  The iPhone has a fine camera in it but no wide angle lens and not much of a flash.  

diningroom
dining room – wide angle lens and a flash 

If you are serious about selling your home get involved.  Look at the information you find on the internet as if you were a home buyer.  Would you buy your home?  Does it look appealing or dark and dingy? 

Professional quality photography is the fastest, cheapest and easiest way to market a home for sale.  The home in the photo sold in one day.  Why do home owners market lovely homes with crappy pictures? 

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A new kind of real estate buyer

Posted on by Teresa Boardman
20110901 085541
 

Maybe you did not notice but instead of using the words phrase “home buyer” I chose real estate buyer. Things have really changed over the last few years and going forward there will be more renters and fewer buyers.

This year and last year I have worked with some life long renters who became buyers. They did so because rents went us but home prices went down. These people are saving money each month and are very happy with their choice to own.  

Recently I have encountered a new kind of buyer. People who are buying homes that their parents or children can rent from them. One buyer wants a fixer-upper for family members to fix up and live in. He is not planning on charging them rent.

It is possible to buy a home that is ready to live in for less than $100K and with today’s super low interest rates payments can end up being much lower than the average rental rate for the same size home in the same neighborhood.

Many people are afraid to buy real estate. For those who have a sense of adventure and a little cash now may be the best time to take advantage of what some are calling “soaring affordability” and low interest rates.  

Working around the furniture

Posted on by Teresa Boardman
 churchpew

Problem solving is a big part of my job and most problems have more than one solution.  Over the years I have had buyers with all sorts of special needs.

There was the lovely woman who played the organ for her church on Sundays that wanted a living or dining room big enough for her organ.  We found the right home but there were some issues with the electrical system, once they were addressed it all worked out.  If her music bothered her neighbors I never heard about it.

I remember the man who wanted to move into a loft.  His needs were minimal and he did not need a lot of space but he wanted to have enough room for his church pew and according to him it belonged near the front door.  It all worked out and he lives happily every after with his church pew.  

The young couple with the bedroom set they bought in Germany eventually moved into a historic home with tall ceilings and their bedroom set looks wonderful in the space.

There are other items that can be a challenge to place like big screen televisions and large dogs, and even tall buyers.  So far I have been able to find suitable housing for all of my buyers and their stuff too.   I won’t explain the other solution. :) 

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A look Back on a Decade of home values

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

This is the last Monday of the Year and the last Monday of the decade so I thought some numbers would be nice.   I love numbers.  These were gathered from our MLS and are for non-commercial residential real estate in St. Paul, Minnesota from 2001 through all but the last week of 2011.  The data is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed but you get to see it for free.

The first chart shows the average sale price by year of homes in St. Paul.  You can watch them go up, and then back down again and up again.  We ended the decade with lower home prices than we started with. (To make the chart larger click on it)

2001 2011W

2001- 2011 average home prices St. Paul, MN

The recession ended in June of 2009 and it is possible that 2009 is also the year housing prices hit bottom.  In 2001 the average home cost $161,139 and this year the average is $149,369.

The second chart shows volume.  I like to look at the number of home sales along with home prices to get a more accurate picture of the market. 

2001 2011volumew
2001 2011 Number of Home Sales

I thought this chart was kind of interesting.  Home sales went way up last year when prices hit bottom and in 2009 we saw the greatest number of foreclosures on the market.

At this point I should make a prediction for next year.  I will predict that home prices will go up slightly.   I am still trying to decide if the number of home sales will go up.  The buying activity we saw in the middle of the decade was unusual.  My hunch is the number of home sales will remain at the level we saw this year. 

This week I will be writing about the past and the future.  I am not only a Realtor but I also own a home in St. Paul.  My interest in these numbers is personal and professional.

For more local numbers see local market conditions and home prices.

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