2012 Year End Review

Happy New Year! It's time again for my annual year end report on the Northern Minnesota real estate market!

754 Listings Sold in 2012 (up 15.3% from 2011)

2028 Properties for Sale in 2012

$167,397 Average List Price (Up .7%)

$135,063 Average Sale Price (Up 17.26%)

163 Average Days on Market

Statistics in this post were obtained from the Northwest Minnesota MLS.

What do these numbers mean?  In my opinion it means that the market did, in fact, hit rock bottom in our area and it's on the way back up!   More houses sold this year over last year and buyers spent more on their purchase.  This could be equated to many factors in the market today.  The biggest factor is the low interest rates. With interest rates at all time lows buyers were able to leverage more money to purchase a more expensive home for the same monthly payment as a lower priced home back in 2002-2009. Which in turn increased our average sale price for the area.

Foreclosure sales also play a large roll in home sale prices. According the the Northwest Minnesota MLS statistics, in 2011 there were 169 bank owned homes sold, in 2012 there were only 122.  The average sale price of the foreclosed homes sold in 2012 was also higher than the average in 2011.  We started to see higher priced homes hit the market as foreclosures.  Many believe this was because distressed home owners in the lower end of the market price range were the first to feel the strain of the recession. 

Buyer confidence is also increasing.  Personally, I have the more active buyers right now than I have seen since 2006.  Buyers are excited to buy again!  There are many homes to choose from, prices are still reasonable, rates are still low and homes are selling.  Great news for Northern Minnesota!

Please feel free to share your thoughts and post your questions, your feedback is always welcome.  Here's to a prosperous, happy and healthy 2013!