real estate

July Home sales for St. Paul, MN

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

 I just love numbers and here are some home sale numbers for July 2012.   Home sales are down slightly from June which is to be expected because we usually peak in May or June.  It is fun to compare this June to June 2011 because every month of the year just looks better as compared to last year. 

While the average home price is up slightly from last month the median home price is down slightly and sitting at $130,000. 

The data used to create the chart comes from the North Star MLS. The data is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. . . .which is alright because there are no guarantees in life. These numbers are for single family homes which includes condos in St. Paul, Minnesota for the month ending July 31 2012.

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July 2012 Home sales

When I first looked at these numbers I thought that the inventory of homes on the market had gone up slightly from last month but they have not.  In fact when I checked it appears that there are only *896 homes on the market in St. Paul that do not have offers on them. Many of the homes with offers on them are waiting for third party approval which means the homes are being short sold and the seller or owner has approved the offer but they are waiting for the bank to say yes. 

In general the real estate market is stronger than it was last year.  Home prices are being held down by appraisals and other economic factors.  There is currently a shortage of some types of homes but the sellers are hanging onto them because they still can not get as much as they paid for them.  If you have equity and would like to move now might be a good time.  Interest rates are oh so low and homes are selling. 

Real estate is local. for more numbers like these except for different months please see local market conditions and home prices.

House Hunting with Evernote

Posted on by Teresa Boardman
evernote
evernote

I love Evernote.  It is where I store my notes and those notes can be searched but thats not all they are stored in the cloud on the interent and on my computer and accessible from my iPad and my phone.  I can store handwritten notes, and pictures and even audio notes.  If I take a picture of a document with text on it with my phone and put it in Evernote the text becomes searchable. 

elephant
elephant

There is a little graphic of an elephant on the tool bar of each of my web browsers that I can click and when I do it will clip web pages and I can store them in Evernote for future reference.  I can gather all of the notes I need for a blog post or a presentation in an Evernote note book and then put it all together when I need it.  

If you are one of my clients your file startes out as an Evernote notebook.  I jot down the measurements of your home and add various documents to the note book.  I can take pictures of receipts with my phone and add them and include a picture of the tree in your backyard that looks as though it is hanging over your neighbors fence.   

When I need to look at my notes a document or a photo I can access them from most anywhere.  If you are a buyer I have notes in Evernote they may say that you don’t like yellow houses and list the neighborhoods you like.

Evernote is free but I pay $45 dollars a year for a premium account.  With a premium account I can upload a gigabyte of data a month and I can do more.  I can share a note books with others and more.  

I think Evernote would make a great tool for house hunting.  Todo lists  can be stored in it along with photographs of houses. The web clipper can be used to keep pictures and information of homes that are found on the interent and it can all be accessed through a mobile phone while out looking at houses.

Minnesota agent population declines

Posted on by Teresa Boardman

 January is a great time to write about how well our Minnesota Realtors are doing.  This is the time of year when people decide to be come real estate agents. This is the time of year when they call and ask questions.    

First off let me point out that a Realtor is a member of the National Association of Realtors and that is it possible to be a real estate agent and not a member of the association.  A real estate agent in this context is a someone with a real estate license. It is that license that allows us to work on behalf of others for a fee.

In 2001 there were 14,230 Realtors in Minnesota.  Durning the peak of the real estate boom in 2006 there were 25,429 Realtors.   In 2011 we had 15,892 agents which is still way to many.  There were more home sales in 2001 than there were in 2011 and home prices were about the same both years. 

MNrealtorchart
Minnesota Realtors

There is always churning.  Most of us are self employed independent contractors.  There were people who became Realtors in 2011 and people who left.  The failure rate is very high.  When the unemployment rate goes up people decide to become Realtors and some of them succeed.  Being in 100% commissioned sales is something that most people never experience and even if it doesn’t work out it is a learning opportunity like no other. 

Getting a real estate license is easy and once licensed an agent can join the National Association of Realtors by paying dues.  

When choosing an agent experience matters.  An agent with no experience will  charge the same amount as an agent with decades of experience.  Real estate companies give agents training but they are on their own, real estate companies do not sell real estate. [see The Truth About real estate companies]  

Also see How Many Realtors in Minnesota?

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Keep it moving along . .

Posted on by Teresa Boardman
cotton swabs
cotton swabs – absorbent enough

 Absorption rates indicate that housing is selling.  Sometimes we forget that is isn’t 2005 and it never will be again but that homes are bought and sold every day. I usually compute an absorption rate each month and post it here on the blog but this month we are going to use the average absorption rate for the Twin Cities Metro area for October from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors. 

     6.2 Months

The current absorption rate is 6.2 months which indicates a healthy market that is almost perfectly balanced between buyers and sellers.  It is still a buyers market but with the low inventory of homes on the market homes are selling faster.  

The absorption rate is a calculation of how quickly homes on the market are being absorbed [purchased].   Absorption rates have remained fairly stable for several months now.  The local housing market is stable and prices should remain stable as well.  

For more local real estate numbers please see Local Market Conditions & Home Prices. 

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