Weekly Market Activity Report

"Whoa, we're halfway there; whoa-oh, livin' on a prayer!"

– Jon Bon Jovi, second-most-famous New Jersey rock idol and noted housing economist

Bringing our market back to balance involves a two-step process: supply needs to draw down, demand needs to bounce back up. It's as simple as that. So far, 2008 is proving to be the year that we can confidently check the first item off this list, as the number of homes for sale continues to dwindle relative to one year ago. There are currently 33,219 homes for sale in the Twin Cities region, down a hearty 4.9 percent from one year ago, a year-over-year figure which should continue to drop in the months ahead. New listings for the week ending June 7 were down 13.9 percent from a year ago, while pending sales declined by a smaller 5.3 percent for the same time period comparison.

All in all, we're halfway there: supply is coming down, but demand is only flattening, not coming back up just yet. Regardless, the signs are encouraging.

This week's edition of the MAAR Weekly Market Activity Report features updated figures for our Housing Affordability Index (HAI) and Months Supply of Inventory. The HAI dropped slightly to 149 due to another increase in interest rates, while inventory increased to 10.4 months of supply. This means that it will take 10.4 months to sell through our current inventory, should buyer activity remain constant and no homes new to the market are listed for sale.

Click the logo below or click here for this week's full report. Visit Market Info for more research reports.

TOP

MAAR Blog – Fresh Cuts Nearly Every Day!

New Monthly Video
The June 2008 Monthly Skinny Video is live. This edition is another quick-fire look at the current state of the Twin Cities housing market, this time narrated by MAAR CEO, Mark Allen. Feel free to share this with others wherever and whenever you'd like.

How Much Has Affordability Really Improved?
One of the chief causes of declining home sales in both the Twin Cities and national housing markets was the troubling affordability picture. As we've discussed countless times before, consumer income was outpaced in growth almost three-to-one from 1992 to 2005. more

Reactions to "Foreclosures and Shortsales in the Twin Cities Housing Market"
We recently released "Foreclosures and Short Sales in the Twin Cities Housing Market"—a special research report that examines the growing prevelance of lender-mediated properties, using a unique new methodology to track them in MLS data. more

TOP

MAAR Considers Bylaw Changes

A membership meeting will be held this week on Thursday, June 19, 10:45 a.m., at the MAAR office located at 5750 Lincoln Drive to consider amendments to the MAAR bylaws. All members are invited to participate. Amendments recommended for approval by the Executive Committee include adding a new honorary membership category, establishing annual dues for REALTOR® Emeritus members and adding a section allowing electronic transaction of business.

Several other amendments are required by the National Association of REALTORS® and require an affirmative vote from the MAAR Board of Directors.

This link (click here) references the bylaws to be voted on by the membership in green text. The required changes to be considered by the Board of Directors are underlined in red. If you plan to attend the membership meeting, please rsvp to Bill Gerst at billg@mplsrealtor.com or 952.988.3141.

TOP

The 100+ – May 2008 Update

We know for a fact that "The 100+" (now with 205 communities!) is one of the most popular services we provide. In the first quarter of this year alone, it had roughly 15,000 hits—the most views of any page on our site except the home page.

This makes us happy. Keep making us happy by visiting it again and again. This month's edition features a slightly new getup, with the percentage change from one year ago added to the graphics below the data table in in the interest of ease-of-use and trend-readability. go there now

TOP

Q1 – Full-Scale 100+ Product?

This is the first in a new series of one-question polls we'll be playing with this summer and into fall if it proves popular. We will simply ask you one industry-related question. Sometimes it will be a broad brush stroke query and sometimes it will be more focused on what we offer here at MAAR. Like this, our first question:

Would you be interested in a single, downloadable file of all the pages of our popular 100+ product?

click here to answer!

TOP

Housing Supply Outlook – June 2008

The June Housing Supply Outlook is out. Here are three quick hits on what to watch for:

• The big story in the Twin Cities housing market this month is that the total marketwide inventory of homes for sale is now below a year ago. A closer look at property categories paints a more nuanced picture. The number of previously owned homes is actually up 1.2 percent from last year, while new construction inventory is down a whopping 26.3 percent (1,422 units).
  
  
• Condominiums are down the most, with 7.6 percent less inventory than a year ago, while single-family detached homes are down the least—only 2.3 percent for now. With foreclosures and short sales maintaining their increased market share and single-family detached homes a more common foreclosure type, this is not shocking.
  
  
• Inventory below $190,000 is actually up 33.4 percent from last year, while properties listed above that mark are down 15.9 percent. Once again, the prevelance of foreclosures and short sales is undoubtedly having an impact here.

TOP

Homes for Sale Show First Decline in Years

We put out our monthly news release last week. Let's paraphrase:

There are fewer homes on the market today than there were a year ago. This is good news. It's the first time that we have been able to report negative year-over-year movement in monthly inventory since we began tracking the figures in 2004.

As for new listings, there were 9,436 of them in May 2008, down a healthy 16.2 percent from May 2007. Traditional, non-lender-mediated new listings (excluding foreclosures and short sales) were down 31.5 percent for the same time period comparison from 10,349 in May 2007 to only 7,092 in May 2008. There were a total of 4,418 pending sales in May, down 7.6 percent from one year ago, a much smaller percentage decline than seen in new listings.

The May median sales price of $205,000 is a slight uptick from last month, but down 9.9 percent from a year ago. Lender-mediated properties had a median sales price of $156,250—down 8.0 percent from last May—while traditional properties had a median sales price of $226,000, a decline of only 3.8 percent.

read the full press release

TOP

News from NorthstarMLS – New Fields Coming (Soon!)

DELAY: New Foreclosure and Manufactured Homes Fields
Because of concerns regarding the assurance that brokers have sellers’ written permission to disclose Foreclosure status, implementation of new fields has been delayed for a couple of weeks. After the delay, the new listing input forms will be completed in PDF format (and ZIPForms for those who use the service). This will make it easier to gain the seller’s written consent without each broker having to develop an interim solution.

Because the changes to Home Base are all connected, the new Manufactured Homes field will also be postponed. It is expected that the new fields will be released the week of June 23.

Source: Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS)

TOP

Public Affairs

City of Bloomington
The city of Bloomington would like to remind all members about the Time-of-Sale Housing Inspection Program. All properties for sale in the city, including single-family, two-family, and multiple dwellings, townhouses, condominiums and mobile homes, are required to have a time-of-sale housing evaluation prior to listing the property for sale, and have a copy of the resulting evaluation report available for review by all potential buyers. view letter to REALTORS® and closers

Source: City of Bloomington

City of Brooklyn Park
The city of Brooklyn Park has amended its point-of-sale housing inspection ordinance to allow the buyer to accept responsibility for repair of hazardous items prior to occupancy.

An escrow equal to 150 percent of the estimated cost of the repairs must be established. The amendment will take effect on July 7.

For information, contact the building inspections division at 763.488.6379.

Source: City of Brooklyn Park

Public Affairs Task Force
The MAAR Public Affairs Task Force heard from Brian Isaacson from the Minnesota Department of Transportation at its recent meeting.

Mr. Isaacson spoke about highway and bridge funding, maintenance, bridge replacement, planning, congestion relief and MNDOT challenges in the coming years. view his PowerPoint presentation

REALTOR® Call for Action!
The Call for Action (CFA) sent to all NAR members asking them to send letters to their Senators urging them to make permanent the increased FHA and GSE loan limits in the economic stimulus package is still active. The need for a permanent increase in the loan limits is mandatory to keep the housing market stable and to provide a source of safe and affordable mortgage options for homeowners.

We expect this CFA to remain active for the time being, so please respond if you haven't already and encourage others to do the same. NAR is resending the CFA to all REALTORS® who haven't yet responded, adding another opportunity for many more people to take action.

If you did not receive the CFA email, you can take action by following this link. Simply enter your email address and prefix—the system will know the rest—and then click "send this message." You can even use the above link in an email to send on to your REALTOR® friends and colleagues.

Go to the REALTOR® Action Center (www.realtoractioncenter.com) to send your letters. If you have questions about the FHA legislation, contact Megan Booth at mbooth@realtors.org or 202.383.1222. Questions about GSE loan limits can be directed to Jeff Lischer at jlischer@realtors.org or 202.383.1117.

Source: National Association of REALTORS®

TOP

Lights, Cameras, REALTORS®! MAAR Is Looking For REALTOR® Actors!

Final notice! Auditions June 23–27 for New MAAR Professional Video!
In both local and national polls of REALTORS®, promoting professionalism is high on the list of wants from REALTORS® of their associations. We hear you. Our existing professionalism resources are either proving difficult to locate on our website (hint: click here) or are outdated. We made a professionalism video several years back that we share in orientation, but it's starting to show its age.

In an effort to punch up our professionalism video for the classroom and for our website, we are making a new one. We have a concept, and now we are putting the call out to members to be involved in what should be an enjoyable experience. If you win a part, your face is certain to be in front of working REALTORS® and other real estate professionals for years to come.

We are offering voice and acting roles to members through an audition process at the MAAR office during the week of June 23–27. Our talent search will include the parts of professional REALTOR(S)®, homeowner(s), buyer(s), narrator and possibly other smaller parts. Please contact Linda Stoeckicht at 952.988.3157 or lindas@mplsrealtor.com to sign up for an audition.

Final note: All parts are volunteer (i.e., unpaid) and all shooting is tentatively scheduled for a single date between July 14 and 28. Although we are unable to pay you, we can feed you on the day of the shoot. Every production worth its salt has a good food spread, and we won't disappoint on that level.

TOP

Education and Professional Development

EPD at Rest
The spring education season is over, and we're taking a little breather as we gear up for fall. In the meantime, we encourage you to explore our exciting leadership development series, Compass Academy.

Many MAAR presidents, board members, task force leaders and volunteers have been through the program and continue to promote its incredible usefulness to their career, even while we have a camera rolling on them. have a look

TOP

REALTOR® of the Year

Do you know the next REALTOR® of the Year? It could be the person sitting right next to you. Heck, it could be you! MAAR is now taking nominations for the 2008 REALTOR® of the Year. This prestigious honor is awarded to one of MAAR"s members who stands out as the best of the best. So think about your colleagues, complete this form and fax it to Amy Ransom at 952.908.2621. Or print and send it to:

MAAR's REALTOR® of the Year
Attention: Amy Ransom
5750 Lincoln Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55436

TOP

Listingbook Launch and Broker Lunch Set for June 18!
Listingbook™ Introduction and Quickstart Training Sessions, June 24–26

On June 18, you'll be able to get your free Agent Account. Go to www.listingbook.com and click on "An Agent?" Listingbook is provided to you as a member service of MAAR. Save these dates:

Listingbook Introduction Luncheon
(for brokers & sales managers only)

June 18, 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Embassy Suites Minneapolis Airport,
7901 34th Ave S, Bloomington, MN 55425
Please RSVP to tswanson@listingbook.com

Listingbook Introduction and Quickstart Training Sessions
(open to all members)

June 24: Embassy Suites Minneapolis Airport, 7901 34th Ave S, Bloomington, MN 55425
June 25: Holiday Inn St. Paul East, 2201 Burns Ave, St. Paul, MN 55119
June 26: National Sports Center, Schwan Event Center, 1700 105th Ave NE, Blaine, MN 55449

Listingbook™ is designed by agents for agents from the ground up to save you time and provide you with the highest level of service that builds client-for-life relationships. Contact Todd Swanson for more information or to arrange an office presentation at 651.423.1369 office, 651.492.4222 mobile or tswanson@listingbook.com.

Source: Listingbook LLC

TOP

"Opportunity Knocking" First-Time Homebuyer Events

Prospective first-time homebuyers can take advantage of "Home Ownership Month" by attending one of three sessions for first-time homebuyers called "Opportunity Knocking: Get the Facts for First Time Homebuyers" sponsored by the Minnesota Home Ownership Center, Bremer Bank and Freddie Mac. "Opportunity Knocking" is an opportunity for potential first-time buyers to:

• Learn about the home-buying process
• Visit with lending and real estate professionals
• Discover home-buying resources and services

The first 30 households to attend each event will receive a $25 gift card to Festival Foods.

And every attendee will receive $10 off Home Stretch courses for first-time homebuyers.

This IS NOT a marketing event. It's a great opportunity to share information with prospective buyers and to reconnect with past clients who may know someone thinking of buying a home.

Tuesday, June 17
4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Richfield Community Center, Richfield Room
7000 Nicollet Ave S, Richfield, MN 55423

Saturday, June 21
11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Brookdale-Hennepin Area Library, Meeting Room C
6125 Shingle Creek Pkwy, Brooklyn Center, MN 55430

Source: Minnesota Home Ownership Center

TOP

New RealEstateHomePages.com Seminar on June 19

RealEstateHomePages.com is offering REALTOR® website seminars free of charge. Some features of the website program:

• 100% ease-of-use editable website—if you can use a text editor, you can edit your entire website.
• Add unlimited pages with no additional cost.
• A Google map search that displays properties and also allows clients to save their searches. The website will then email the client updates on a daily basis.
• Free marketing on Find Minnesota Homes.com portal website.
• The featured Listing page automatically takes your listings and puts them live on your website. It will also update the listing to Sold status. No work is required on your end.

Seminar also covers valuable tips on drip email, lead generation and search engine optimization.

Date and Time: Thursday, June 19, 9:30–11:30 a.m.
Location: The PDC@RFC, 4450 W 76th St, Edina, MN 55435
Register

TOP

Apartment & Condominium Summit, June 25

The Real Estate Communications Group and the Minnesota Real Estate Journal present the Apartment & Condominium Summit on June 25 at the Golden Valley Country Club, 7001 Golden Valley Road, Golden Valley MN 55427. This event will focus on both the apartment and condominium industries' development, investment and legal issues in today's current real estate market. This summit provides an excellent networking opportunity with other real estate professionals and industry leaders.

Date: Wednesday, June 25
Time: 7:15 a.m. (registration and breakfast buffet); 8 a.m. – noon (program)
Location: Golden Valley Country Club, 7001 Golden Valley Rd., Golden Valley, MN 55427
Cost: $109 special rate; $139 after June 17
Credits: 4 hours of real estate CE credits (pending)
Program Details & Registration

For registration info, contact Stephanie Awe, sawe@recg.com, 952.405.7785, or click here.

Source: Real Estate Communications Group

TOP

How to Engineer Your Success in Real Estate

RISMedia recently published a good article on REALTOR® business planning. Though written from the agent perspective, it is equally applicable for brokers. read more

Source: RISMedia

TOP

Gas Goes Up, Gas Goes Down, Gas Goes Up...

This is a pretty spectacular website: twincitiesgasprices.com.

This week it could be a BP in Burnsville or a Sinclair in Woodbury, last week maybe it was a Costco in Maple Grove or a PDQ in Eagan. You can also search by area in case you don't want to drive across town just to "save" a buck.

TOP

Listingbook Promotion

TOP