Business & Tech

UPDATE: Rosemount Home Sales Continued Slump in March

A new report from the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors paints a grim picture of the housing market in Rosemount.

The Rosemount real estate market continued its downward spiral in the first quarter, with new listings plummeting almost 18 percent compared to the first quarter of 2010.

The average sales price in Rosemount dropped 19.5 percent and the median sales price slid more than 24 percent over the same period last year. The figures come from the monthly market report issued by the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR).

“These are a comparison to last year, which was a tax-incentive year,” MAAR communications director Greg Sax said. “So the numbers are going to be down, no matter what.

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"At the same time, we are seeing that lender-mediated properties are still dominating the market. We’d like to see fewer of those, but it is what it is.”

Rosemount Realtor Shane Maki of Midwest Realty was more blunt: “The [2010] buyer’s tax credit really messed things up,” he said.

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The only slightly bright spot in 2011’s first-quarter statistics: The number of closed sales was up almost 2 percent in Rosemount.

While the overall numbers were dismal, they also indicate more about the weakness of the market earlier in 2011 than in March, said Linda McCall of RE/MAX.

"Many of the sales actually took place in January and February, which was the worst part of the winter slump. That lack of traffic helped depress the housing prices even more than has been the case."

She said those houses don't show up in the sales figures until the deal actually closes, which can often take a month or two.

Even with that caveat, other numbers from Rosemount in March added to the dismal picture.

The median sales price for a new home -- the price at which half the homes cost more, and half cost less, as opposed to the average price -- dropped from $220,000 in the first quarter of 2010 to $166,800 in 2011.

The average number of days between when a property is first listed to when an offer is accepted swelled from 116 days in the first three months of 2010 to 138 days in the first quarter of this year.

The number of new listings fell from 192 in the first quarter of 2010 to 158 during the same period this year. That number included newly listed lender-mediated homes -- foreclosures and short sales.

In spite of the numbers, Cari Lynn, president-elect of MAAR, expressed optimism.

"Layoffs have decreased, and we are building on 13 consecutive months of job growth, which bodes well for local real estate," she said in a statement. "In addition to new housing demand, we should eventually see the mortgage delinquency rate drop and fewer distressed sales pressuring prices downward."

Sax also pronounced the real estate industry "cautiously optimistic" about the upcoming summer and fall.

"That’s where we feel like we’ll start to see some relief," he said. "It isn’t going to be extreme, but it won’t be as trying as last summer."

Maki was, for a Realtor, uncharacteristically gloomy: “I still think it’s going to get better, but not for a little while yet,” he said. “I think [the numbers] may actually dip a little bit more yet.

“I don’t like to be pessimistic, but the reality is that it’s going to take a little while to recover, and I don’t expect any fast turnaround times.”

While it’s true that the economy is showing signs of recovery – with lower unemployment and fewer foreclosures – the housing market is still being driven by foreclosure properties, Maki said.

“We still have a lot of that inventory to soak up,” he said. “On the flip side, it’s more affordable than it’s been in years to purchase a home, with low prices and low interest rates. But until people feel more strongly about the economy, most of them aren’t willing to take on an additional risk.”


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