Fed Drops Rates 1/4 point

I just saw the news from Reuters that the Federal Reserve is dropping interest rates 1/4 point. It remains to be seen what effect this will have on mortgage interest rates. On Friday, Burnet's rates were at 6.125% for a 30 year fixed loan. It seems that rates have been between 6% and 6.5% for ages. If we dipped below 6% I think we would see some sparks. Stay tuned.....

Midtown Greenway Clean up

Yesterday we went out in the beutiful 68 degree weather to clean the portion of the Midtown Greenway we have adopted from 38th Street to River Road. We were joined by our key volunteer Mary Lowe. Thanks Mary! The folks that use the Greenway seem to be pretty tidy - so there was not very much trash to clean up. Please let us know if you would like to volunteer for our srping clean up.

Fall is the new spring

“Buy in the fall and sell in the spring” was my mantra for many years. The market has changed dramatically since I became a Realtor in 1999 and it is essential for me to stay in tune and make strategic shifts in order to “play the market”.

It didn’t take me long to figure out that spring was the time to sell (real estate spring used to start in February – even in Minnesota!) back in 1999. The numbers of listings were scarce and there was huge buyer demand. Homes usually sold in multiple offers before the sign went in the yard. I have this vivid memory of showing a house on a sunny day in South Minneapolis the first day on market. There were so many agents showing the house passers by thought it was an open house! In 2007 the picture is very different. There has been a dramatic increase in inventory. We went from having around 15,000 active single family listings in the 13 county metro area in 2004 to having around 35,000 in 2007!

The name of the game is now finding the relative scarcity. When is the best strategic timing for selling my home? I boldly say that November, December and early January (NOW) is a good time to put a home on the market. November 1st the number of listings drops like a bouncing ball. We start to see fewer listings going on the market and many folks taking there houses off of the market with plans to put them back on again in the spring. They are still listening to that golden oldie “buy in the fall and sell in the spring”. But guess what? It’s 2007! You will be competing with a much larger inventory in the spring. Folks buy and sell houses all year long. (This year we had two listings sell in multiple offers on January 5th!) Wouldn’t you rather have your home on the market when it has a better chance of standing out? Let me be the first to say “FALL IS THE NEW SRPING”.

Minneapolis Airport Noise Settlement

From Mayor R.T. Rybak's office:

Minneapolis Approves Airport Settlement
$127 million Agreement Provides Noise Protection for 9,560 Homes
Oct. 16, 2007 (MINNEAPOLIS) -Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak today signed the unanimous City Council action to approve a proposed settlement that will provide significant and meaningful relief from airport noise pollution for residents in the cities of Minneapolis, Richfield and Eagan.

"More than 9,000 residents, most who live in Minneapolis, will now get significant protection from airport noise pollution," Mayor Rybak said. "That was part of the original deal for expanding the airport more than a decade ago. When that promise was broken, we stood up for our citizens and today we delivered for those people who have waited too long for justice." More

Click here for an interactive Airport Noise map

Market Activity Report for week of Oct. 29

From the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors:

As the fall season progresses and we move toward winter, the number of homes for sale in the Twin Cities is in the midst of its annual decline. Total inventory in the 13-county region has fallen by almost 2,000 units in the last two months and should continue to drop through the remainder of 2007. Despite the seasonal dip, home sellers who choose to leave their homes on the market will still face a tough market, as the number of buyers is relatively low. Newly signed purchase agreements (pending sales) for the week ending October 20 were behind the same week last year by 18.1 percent.

Here's the latest Monthly Market Indicators

Weekend Open Houses

If you're looking for either one of us on a Sunday afternoon, it's likely we're at an Open House.

This Sunday Shari can be found at 2623 Cedar Ave S and Neil will be at 1026 Burgess St.

How are Interst Rates?

The second most common question we get asked as realtors is "How are Interest Rates?"

Much hullabaloo is made when interst rates creep up an 1/8th or 1/4 point. The media has a field day with this type of doom and gloom. It is rarely reported when interst rates go down - afterall, who wants to hear good news?!

For much of this year rates have been hovering right around 6%.

For today, Burnet Home Loans is publishing the following:

Conventional Fixed Rate Programs
30 year: 6.125%
15 year: 5.750%

Conventional ARM Programs
5/1 ARM: 5.875%
7/1 ARM: 5.875%
10/1 ARM: 6.250%

FHA/VA Programs
30 year fixed: 6.000%
1 year ARM: 6.000%
VA 30 yr fixed: 6.000%

Weekly Market Report October 22

Weekly Market Activity Report
Buyers remain firmly in the driver's seat in the Twin Cities housing market, but sellers have begun to do a little backseat driving. Over the past three months, sellers have put 6.0 percent less homes on the market than they did for the same period last year. And for the week ending October 13—our most recent reporting period—they put 7.9 percent less homes on the market. While inventory is still at record highs and sellers are still competing for a smaller pool of buyers, signs of slowing seller activity are welcome news for an oversupplied housing market.

Newly signed purchase agreements (pending sales) for the last three months have declined by 20.5 percent relative to the same period in 2006, with the most recent reporting week seeing an 18.3 percent decline. The total number of active listings on the market has begun its annual autumn drop, with incremental dips each week for the last 5 weeks.

Click Here for the full market report.

Welcome

Welcome to our blog.

Here we will post Minneapolis area Real Estate market news, upcoming events including open houses, mortgage interest rates, market stats, home maintenance tips etc.