As compared to the second-half 2010 market-wide slowdown once the tax credit expired, seller activity remains below 2010 levels while buyer activity is rising up in line with historic norms.

Twin Cities home sellers brought 1,478 properties to the market, or 8.7 percent fewer than the same week last year. Buyers signed 1,064 purchase agreements, or 59.8 percent more than last year. That’s the largest year-over-year increase in pending sales since the third week in November 2008, greater than any single week during the 2009 and 2010 tax credits. Pent up demand, anyone?

The number of active listings has seen 22 straight weeks of year-over-year declines and seven weeks of month-to-month declines. It’s currently down 17.2 percent to 24,712. Inventory in 2011 peaked around 26,000 properties, down considerably from a 2007 peak of 36,700.

Slowed listings, falling supply and relatively strong sales have finally begun to draw down absorption rates. Months supply of inventory enjoyed its first decline in a year – suggesting balance lies ahead.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

For the week ending July 2, there were 1,057 purchase agreements, a 58.2 percent increase over the 668 seen during the same week last year

Let's sprinkle in some context. Over the past 10 weeks in the Twin Cities metro area, pending sales have increased slightly from 986 to 1,057. Over the same 10 weeks in 2010, pending sales plunged from a credit-inspired 1,505 to an unimpressive 668. The resulting year-over-year comparisons? Three consecutive weeks of 50.0 percent or greater gains and eight consecutive weeks of double-digit gains in buyer activity.

On the seller side, activity remains comparable with 2010 levels. The 1,396 new properties added to the market were only 0.7 percent under year-ago levels. Strong sales gains coupled with stagnant listing activity is dramatically drawing down inventory levels.

There are currently 25,613 homes being actively marketed in NorthstarMLS. That's down 15.6 percent from the 30,072 seen at this time last year, which is the largest inventory decline since January 2010.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

For the week ending June 18, pending sales in the Twin Cities reached a new high for 2011. The 961 signed purchase agreements were 49.0 percent higher than the same week last year. That's the greatest number of pending sales in 57 weeks or since the week ending May 15, 2010—and only four contracts shy of the 2008 peak. It's also the sixth consecutive week of double-digit year-over-year gains, which is still partially explained by the sharp drop in sales once the 2010 credit expired.New listings were down 10.4 percent from last year to 1,534 new homes, and inventory levels are falling at an increasing rate for the fourth consecutive week, which is a good thing. Having reached or nearly reached our seasonal inventory peak of 24,017 active listings, it's likely that we'll finish 2011 with fewer homes for sale than we started with for only the third time in the past eight years.

Question: What do you get when you combine slowed listing activity with strong sales gains and falling inventory?

Answer: Continued stabilization leading to market recovery.


For the week ending July 2, there were 1,057 purchase agreements, a 58.2 percent increase over the 668 seen during the same week last year

Let's sprinkle in some context. Over the past 10 weeks in the Twin Cities metro area, pending sales have increased slightly from 986 to 1,057. Over the same 10 weeks in 2010, pending sales plunged from a credit-inspired 1,505 to an unimpressive 668. The resulting year-over-year comparisons? Three consecutive weeks of 50.0 percent or greater gains and eight consecutive weeks of double-digit gains in buyer activity.

On the seller side, activity remains comparable with 2010 levels. The 1,396 new properties added to the market were only 0.7 percent under year-ago levels. Strong sales gains coupled with stagnant listing activity is dramatically drawing down inventory levels.

There are currently 25,613 homes being actively marketed in NorthstarMLS. That's down 15.6 percent from the 30,072 seen at this time last year, which is the largest inventory decline since January 2010.

For the week ending June 18, pending sales in the Twin Cities reached a new high for 2011. The 961 signed purchase agreements were 49.0 percent higher than the same week last year. That's the greatest number of pending sales in 57 weeks or since the week ending May 15, 2010—and only four contracts shy of the 2008 peak. It's also the sixth consecutive week of double-digit year-over-year gains, which is still partially explained by the sharp drop in sales once the 2010 credit expired.New listings were down 10.4 percent from last year to 1,534 new homes, and inventory levels are falling at an increasing rate for the fourth consecutive week, which is a good thing. Having reached or nearly reached our seasonal inventory peak of 24,017 active listings, it's likely that we'll finish 2011 with fewer homes for sale than we started with for only the third time in the past eight years.

Question: What do you get when you combine slowed listing activity with strong sales gains and falling inventory?

Answer: Continued stabilization leading to market recovery.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

For the week ending June 18, pending sales in the Twin Cities reached a new high for 2011. The 961 signed purchase agreements were 49.0 percent higher than the same week last year. That's the greatest number of pending sales in 57 weeks or since the week ending May 15, 2010—and only four contracts shy of the 2008 peak. It's also the sixth consecutive week of double-digit year-over-year gains, which is still partially explained by the sharp drop in sales once the 2010 credit expired.New listings were down 10.4 percent from last year to 1,534 new homes, and inventory levels are falling at an increasing rate for the fourth consecutive week, which is a good thing. Having reached or nearly reached our seasonal inventory peak of 24,017 active listings, it's likely that we'll finish 2011 with fewer homes for sale than we started with for only the third time in the past eight years.

Question: What do you get when you combine slowed listing activity with strong sales gains and falling inventory?

Answer: Continued stabilization leading to market recovery.

For the week ending June 4, both buyer and seller activity continued to outpace year-ago levels in the Twin Cities. New listings were up 10.6 percent over the same week in 2010, and pending sales were up an encouraging 34.7 percent. That marks the fifth consecutive week of year-over-year gains in new listings and the fourth consecutive week of year-over-year gains in pending sales.

Those are refreshing market signals that allow for some cautious optimism, yet we must also posit that the changing story has more to do with last year than this year. Once the credit expired in 2010, sales and listing activity fell rather sharply. For example, sales volumes went from nearly 1,500 during the final week of April 2010 to 600 four weeks later.

The overall number of active listings for sale was down 10.7 percent to 24,097 units. After six straight weeks of decelerating inventory declines, the year-over-year decreases have started to grow again. The conclusion to this week's story: There's change...and then there's the rate of change.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

Buyer activity in the Twin Cities metro area increased a colossal 59.2 percent over last year, the strongest year-over-year gain since the week ending October 3, 2009. That's a win any way you look at it, especially after 52 of the past 53 weeks showed year-over-year declines in buyer activity.

The post-tax credit drop-off seen at this time last year is driving this shift while current purchase levels have been on a modest but steady seasonal uptick. So far, sales levels are on track with 2007 and 2008 trends.

The change at this time last year is also showing up on the seller's side, where 1,523 new homes were introduced, or 3.3 percent more than the same week in 2010.

Overall, we've seen four consecutive weeks of gains in seller activity and three consecutive weeks of gains in buyer activity.

Inventory levels are preparing to round off their seasonal peaks. The 23,920 Active Listings for Sale are currently 10.6 percent below year-ago levels. That marks the 17th consecutive week of declines, a phenomenon not seen since spring 2010.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

For only the second time since the end of last year's tax credit, there were more Pending Sales for a given week than in the prior year. A total of 958 buyers entered into contract for the week ending May 14, an increase of 15.4 percent and the highest number of pendings since the week ending May 8, 2010.

But let's not get too excited just yet, because this apparent shift in Twin Cities home purchase activity was primarily driven by the post-tax-credit slowdown seen at this time last year. To illustrate this point, 2011 sales activity has increased 4.1 percent since the final week of April, while 2010 saw a 43.5 percent decrease during the same period.

On the supply side, New Listings have come back in line with historical norms for this time of year. Sellers brought 1,704 new homes online, or 7.7 percent more than the same time in 2010. Again, 2011 activity has been fairly stable over the past month while 2010 activity declined by nearly 33 percent.

The 23,739 Active Listings for Sale have grown slightly over the course of the year, but remain 10.1 percent under 2010 inventory levels or about 2,700 units slimmer. All those crunches are really starting to pay off as we enter bikini season.

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.