Home Sales Prices Drop Slightly During June in Maple Grove

Across the region, the market is finally starting to tilt in favor of sellers, rather than buyers, the Minneapolis-Area Association of Realtors is reporting this month.

The bottom line: The median sales price in June 2012 rose 10.7 percent from the previous June to $179,500. That’s the second-largest annual gain since January 2004 and the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year gains. Excluding only June 2010, home prices in the Greater Twin Cities area are now at their highest level since October 2008.

However, in Maple Grove, the median sales price dropped in June compared to 2011. The median sales price in Maple Grove at $217,000 for June 2012 exceeded the median sales price region wide. In Maple Grove, the median sales price decreased about 5.7 percent from the same time last year.

The higher home prices region wide are a result of declining supply, according to MAAR, as well as rising demand. In June 2012, buyers signed 4,917 purchase agreements, 16 percent higher than June 2011. In Maple Grove, the market experienced a 4.1 percent increase in closed sales from last June.

Meanwhile, the number of homes for sale has dropped for 17 consecutive months, down 31.2 percent from last year to 17,103 active listings—the lowest inventory reading for any month since January 2004. June inventory for Maple Grove decreased by nearly 12 percent.

Months’ supply of inventory, a standard industry measure of inventory, dropped 44.6 percent to 4.4 months, the lowest reading for any month since December 2005. In Maple Grove that number is now 3.3 months' inventory.

Realtors cited several other bits of good news from the close of the second quarter: Homes are selling in 113 days, on average, down 22 percent from last year (Maple Grove: 88 days).

Sellers in the Twin Cities are getting an average of 95.1 percent of their list price, up 4 percent from last year (Maple Grove: 96.3 percent). And cash buyers are making up 19.3 percent of all closed sales.

Perhaps most significantly, people putting their homes on the market no longer have to compete with quite such a huge flood of short sales and foreclosures, collectively known as "distressed sales." In June, distressed sales accounted for 30.6 percent of all new listings and 34.6 percent of all closed sales, the lowest shares since June 2008 and August 2008, respectively.

“It’s difficult to find a negative trend in the local housing market right now,” Cari Linn, MAAR's president, said in a news release. “After many years of decline, it’s a welcome change of pace.”

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