What an unbelievable first half of the year in real estate! It seems for the past couple years that the market for real estate in St Cloud and the surrounding areas changes completely every few months. This year has seen a frantic spring market as buyers scrambled to take advantage of the Federal Tax Credit that expired at the end of April. (They have recently extended the time frame to close on homes that were already under contract by the end of April, but this extension does not apply to buyers who were not under contract April 30. There is, however, an extension for some members of the military). Combined with low prices and low interest rates the $6500 – $8000 credit brought many people that may have purchased homes later this year or even next year into the market this spring.
Now that the tax credit has passed there has been a lull in activity but the market has not come to a standstill as many expected. We are still selling homes at a steady rate, although much slower than earlier this year. In fact our team sold 45 homes in the first half of this year, compared to 50 all of last year!
The chart below shows the activity for sold single family homes in St Cloud, Sartell, Sauk Rapids, Waite Park and St Joseph from January 1 through June 30 in 2009 and 2010. All data is pulled from our local MLS, NorthstarMLS.
| 2009 | 2010 | % Change | |
| Number of Homes Sold | 513 | 608 | +18.5% |
| Average Listing Price | $155,500 | $156,682 | +0.7% |
| Average Sale Price | $149,913 | $150,974 | +0.7% |
| Percent of Listing Price Received | 96.4% | 96.4% | None |
| Average Number of Days on Market | 170.1 | 169.2 | -0.5% |
As you can see, the average price, reduction from asking price and amount of time it takes to sell a home have been very steady, all varying less than 1%. The only significant change is that the number of homes sold has increased by almost 20%. Our expectation is that by the end of the year the prices and number of homes sold will deteriorate from this strong Tax Credit Fueled first half.
One surprise for the summer market has been the record low interest rates. For borrowers with good credit, we have seen rates near 4.5% on 30 year mortgages for several weeks. Another change in the market this year is the reduction in the amount of foreclosed homes on the market. We keep hearing about the flood of foreclosures that are on the way but they have yet to materialize. There are, however, more and more short sales on the market. With short sales and mortgage modifications on the rise, the only certainty is that the market will continue to change.
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