Week of June 22, 2009
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News and Updates As we near the halfway mark of 2009, the Twin Cities housing market continues to show a pattern of robust home sales and declining new listing activity. Setting aside fluctuations over the Memorial Day holiday, long-term market improvement can be seen when comparing 2009 to 2008. There were 1,210 pending sales for the week ending June 13—a strong 33.8 percent increase from last year. There were 1,970 new homes added to the market during the same week, a decrease of 2.6 percent from the same week in 2008. That 2.6 percent decline in new listings is a much smaller drop than we have seen in recent months when there were typically year-over-year drops of 10 percent or stronger. VIEW FULL REPORT | VIEW MORE RESEARCH REPORTS |
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The June 2009 Monthly Skinny Video is online now! This month's edition is another quickfire update on the Twin Cities housing market, this time narrated by our President-Elect, Brad Fisher. YouTube version | High-Quality MPG version Please feel free to share this whenever and however you'd like. For other great stuff, visit our market insight blog, also called "The Skinny," by clicking here.
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NAR is undergoing a major upgrade to its Internet connection that will bring their entire network down from Friday, June 26, 7:30 p.m. until sometime Saturday morning. Many NAR services will be unavailable, including realtor.org, email to and from NAR staff and leadership, NRDS, and the e-commerce system. This outage is expected to last six hours. This means MAAR will need to bring IMS offline during the upgrade as credit card processing for IMS transactions will not be available due to e-commerce being offline. Source: National Association of REALTORS® |
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June 2009 Issue of Real Estate Insights
Real Estate Insights: Web version | PDF version Source: National Association of REALTORS® |
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"The 100+," our community level market tracking tool has been updated with data through May 2009. All real estate is local—even from block to block. "The 100+" was built with this micro-level geographic truism in mind. |
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Housing Supply Outlook – June 2009
Takeaway #1: The number of townhome sales in the Twin Cities metro area has increased over the last year by 0.4 percent after several consecutive years of declines in unit sales. Can you guess the price point where townhouse sales increased the heaviest in the past year? Answer: Under $120,000, where sales have more than tripled. Of the 1,898 townhouse sales in that segment, 1,557 were lender-mediated foreclosures and short sales. Takeaway #2: There are currently 7.6 months of supply available, down 28.6 percent from last year at this time when the mark was 10.4 months. The biggest drops in supply have been seen in the single-family detached and townhouse markets—the months supply of condominiums still sits at 12.5 months. Takeaway #3: Sales are up overall; but in the higher price ranges, sales are still down over 20 percent year-over-year. In the $1,000,000 and higher segment there is almost 3 years of supply available. |
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2009 Renewal Information from the Department of Commerce The license renewal date is just around the corner: June 30, 2009. Step-by-step renewal instructions, given by the Department of Commerce, are available on our website. | SEE FULL INSTRUCTIONS IMPORTANT: Renewals are performed online at www.pulseportal.com. |
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GE Supra DisplayKEY Annual Billing
Questions? Three options: Call Supra at 1.877.699.6787, call MAAR Member Services at 952.933.9020 or email info@mplsrealtor.com. | VIEW FEE INFORMATION |
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Mortgage Update: Jumbos Remain Elusive At a time when some mortgage products are showing signs of life, jumbo mortgages are hard to get and expensive, making it difficult for many would-be move-up buyers to take action. A REALTOR® Magazine article explores the topic and links to a free webinar on what's really available in the mortgage market today. |
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The State of the Nation's Housing Market 2009
They have released their annual report, The State of the Nation's Housing 2009. It's a beautiful piece of work: elegant and complete. All real estate is local—that is a guiding principal of what we do at MAAR—but a bird's eye view of the nation can have value, too. Source: Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University (with props to @PhxREguy) |
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Home Valuation Code of Conduct: Myths and Facts New guidelines by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for the hiring of appraisers has generated uncertainty among practitioners. The requirements stem from an agreement that the two secondary mortgage market companies entered into with the New York attorney general last year to help curb inaccurate appraisals and stem the use of appraisals for fraud. NAR has developed a brochure to help clarify some of the common misunderstandings about the guidelines. Source: National Association of REALTORS® |
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Final week of survey! Thanks to those who have already answered! Click here to take the Q1 survey now! |
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Events MAAR Discount to Inman Real Estate Connect in San Francisco Ends Friday!
Mark Allen, MAAR's CEO, will be a panelist at Real Estate Connect in San Francisco, August 5–7, 2009. Because of our involvement, MAAR has secured a 50% discount off the regular price of attending this unbelievable networking event. – Click here or on the image above to get started – The special link from here and the code "MLPR" are key to receiving What happens at Inman Real Estate Connect? In addition to your being in one of the greatest cities in the world, you will be attending what is arguably the best national real estate conference. You WILL meet the most forward-thinking people in and out of the real estate industry—the people that are changing the business we work in. (Did I already mention that we will be there?) Conference sessions and workshops are applicable to the "now" factor we're experiencing as an industry. Oh, and we hear that the after-hour parties are epic. Special pricing is available for new registrations only. Inman cannot refund previously registered guests with this special price. So take advantage this week! We'd love to see you there! |
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Coon Rapids Community Wide Open House
REALTORS® and the City of Coon Rapids are teaming up to help move housing inventory! All brokers and agents are encouraged to hold their Coon Rapids real estate listings open all on the same day, allowing home buyers to walk through a variety of homes. There are at least 200 agents with nearly 600 listings in Coon Rapids. The goal is to hold open over 100 listings! Similar communities throughout the country have done such events and had well over 1,000 prospective buyers tour through their opens. Listing Agents: Get your listings registered for showings and pick up your free custom Community Wide Open House sign rider from the North Metro REALTORS® Association. Buyer Agents: Promote Coon Rapids and take your buyers out to multiple homes. | FLYER Register your listings by filling out this form or contact Laura at laura@northmetro.com. Source: North Metro REALTORS® Association |
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2009 REALTORS® Conference & Expo, November 13–16. Registration is Open!
INFO & REGISTRATION | ONLINE CONFERENCE FLIPPY BOOK |
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Departments Fannie Mae Short Sales Commissions Policy and Appeals Process
Sources: The Washington Report, National Association of REALTORS®
For all other states where such programs do not exist, the tax credit may not be used to fund the 3.5 percent downpayment required for FHA loans. As always, the 3.5 percent downpayment may be a gift from a family member, employer or nonprofit, charitable organization. FHA-approved nonprofit organizations and FHA-approved lenders may monetize the tax credit for downpayments in excess of 3.5 percent, closing costs and interest rate buy-downs. Mortgage industry leaders have indicated that this type of product may not be immediately available to consumers. NAR Info on 2009 First-Time Home Buyer Tax Credit Sources: The Washington Report, National Association of REALTORS®
Health Care Reform to Top Capitol Hill Agenda Source: National Association of REALTORS®
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Time is running out! The deadline to complete your CE is Tuesday, June 30, 2009. Finish your CE online and take advantage of MAAR's online vendor discounts. Online Discount Expiration Date Extended
Register now and take $5.00 off each individual course or $10.00 off a package. Simply use one of the discount codes listed below during checkout. | GET STARTED
With 1 Hour Agency, 1 Hour Fair Housing Options! Classes taken through The CE Shop are uploaded to the Department of Commerce by The CE Shop and will NOT show up in your education history if you log into MAAR's website. MAAR Members Renewing Their Licenses in 2010 Remember, we can only help you with classes that you take through MAAR. If you find an inaccuracy with a class you have taken elsewhere, please contact that course provider to resolve the issue. |
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MAAR's Green Council If you are interested in knowing more about "green" products, how they are made and how the use of them benefits the environment in new and existing homes, then the Green Council is a great place to start. Learn and network with like-minded professionals in the real estate industry.
Cycling agents peddle green philosophy  |
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Every effort was made to bring listings and office/member records over as completely and accurately as possible, but errors and oversights can occur during mass conversions. Most corrections to listings can be made through Home Base, but if consistent problems are found, they should be reported to the NorthstarMLS Help Desk at 651.251.5456 or mlshelp@northstarmls.com. Known Issues That Are Being Addressed: Photos are not yet displaying in Home Base or Matrix, and some duplicate listings are showing up for the same property. Duplicates should be reported to the Help Desk for removal. The city of St. Cloud and surrounding area will now be covered by ten MLS areas:
Please use the new areas when listing properties in Stearns and Benton counties (and the small portion of Sherburne County covered by Area 404). If you have any existing listings in these areas, you are encouraged to edit them. | VIEW NEW MLS AREA BOUNDARIES Source: Regional Multiple Listing Service (RMLS) |
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Reference Short Sale Basics, In-Depth Resources Online NAR has provided a primer on the basics of short sales with links to in-depth resources at a new short sales page at realtor.org. Access material to help you understand the process and to explain short sales to consumers. | CHECK IT OUT |
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