While the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) cashed in on being chosen as the site for this year's Major League Baseball All-Star Game celebrations, home buyers and sellers in the metro area are also cashing in on a currently strong housing market.
The Minneapolis – St. Paul metro housing market has just experienced 28 straight months of median home price gains as fewer distressed property listings comprise an increasingly shrinking portion of home sales, according to the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR).
Metro median home sales price increased 4.7% to $219,900 in the month of June. This is encouraging Twin Cities home sellers to jump into housing market activity and enjoy the benefits, MAAR says.
‘With the strategy to buy a home for equity gains, buyers are investing in a Twin Cities home to generate returns,’ says Jenna Thuening, owner of Twin Cities residential Realtor Home Destination. ‘Both home buyers and Twin Cites real estate sellers have unique advantages they can leverage as we head into the second half of 2014.’
In June, distressed properties made up 9.5% of available real estate listings and 12.6% of closed sales – the lowest numbers since 2007, MAAR reports. With fewer distressed properties driving down home prices, home price growth has remained positive.
Twin Cities Investors gives the following insights in comparison to CoreLogic's Home Equity Report for Q1'14: The national average of home equity share is 87.3%; the Twin Cities stand ahead at 90.3%. The national average loan-to-value ratio is 60.8%, and the Minneapolis metro area ranks at 63.5%.