Best Advantage Mortgage | Lavender Magazine lavendermagazine.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from lavendermagazine.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Pandemic has more Twin Cities home buyers looking outward Remote work lessens downtown s appeal. January 30, 2021 1:44pm Text size Copy shortlink:
It took just two days for a split-level house near Stacy to sell this month. Put on the market on a Friday for $284,900, it was shown 18 times and drew five offers by that Sunday, all above asking price.
Realtor Hyounsoo Lathrop wasn t surprised. With COVID, people want to be away from the cities and have some space, she said. Out here you get top dollar.
The modest 1970s-era house some 40 miles northeast of downtown Minneapolis had taken much longer to sell and for a much lower price just a few years ago. But the COVID-19 pandemic is turning the housing market in the Twin Cities inside out.
Copy shortlink:
For home sellers in the Twin Cities metro, 2020 couldn’t have been better. For buyers, however, last year was a battle. With mortgage rates falling to record lows and a pandemic upending how and where people want to live, sales exceeded new listings throughout much of the metro. Bidding wars were the norm and prices rose to record highs, forcing buyers to several far-flung suburbs that topped the Star Tribune’s fifth annual Hot Housing Index, which ranks communities based on the annual change in average market time, sale price, number of sales and percent of original list price received by the seller.
Copy shortlink:
Despite a global pandemic and steep recession, the housing market in the Twin Cities broke a bevy of records last year.
Home sales rose by 8% in 2020 compared with the previous year, sending the median sale price to a record $305,000, more than double the level of eight years ago and nearly 9% higher than the previous high. Despite several challenges, the Twin Cities housing market exceeded all expectations, said Todd Walker, Minneapolis Area Realtors president, in a statement.
Record low mortgage rates largely drove the surge in home buying, fueling demand in virtually every corner of the region and in every price range, even at the top of the market. Sales of $1 million homes last year posted the biggest annual gain for any price range, rising 25% over the previous year.
On the Street: January 8
The Greater Alexandria Area Association of Realtors was one of 13 associations that participated in a statewide fundraiser. 8:00 am, Jan. 8, 2021 ×
Heather Ahrens, CEO of the Greater Alexandria Area Association of Realtors, and Brian Flaten, 2020 Association President, hold up a certificate for participation in a statewide giving campaign. (Contributed)
Realtor giving campaign raises more than $250,000
Realtor associations around Minnesota have collected over a quarter million dollars in donations for businesses that were damaged during civil unrest in Minneapolis and St. Paul last year.
Starting in June 2020, Minnesota Realtors Rebuilding Community spearheaded the effort to engage realtors on housing issues related to racial diversity, equity and inclusion.