If only there were a system of grand, colorful lights for tracking residential real estate. Green for rising market, yellow for a transitional market and red for declining market. Let’s see if we can try to determine today’s market without the ease of well-known signals. Prices are bottoming and starting to rise. Buyer activity is showing year-over-year gains. Homes are selling faster and closer to list price. Multiple offers are becoming commonplace. Inventory levels are leaning toward the seller. Green means go.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending May 5:

• New Listings decreased 6.6% to 1,643
• Pending Sales increased 41.9% to 1,232
• Inventory decreased 28.3% to 17,579

For the month of April:

• Median Sales Price increased 12.1% to $162,500
• Days on Market decreased 15.1% to 135
• Percent of Original List Price Received increased 3.6% to 93.4%
• Months Supply of Inventory decreased 43.1% to 4.7

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

Buyers don’t live in a spreadsheet. When they find a home to love and cherish, they don’t intellectualize it too much. There are generally fewer homes on the market, they’re selling more quickly and prices in most areas are no longer in a downtrend. Dwindling inventories means there’s less competition and more pricing power for sellers, who are finally starting to be rewarded by strong buyer activity. Interest rates at 50-year lows doesn’t hurt either. Love is in the air and all around the housing market.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending April 28:

• New Listings decreased 14.9% to 1,475
• Pending Sales increased 21.4% to 1,187
• Inventory decreased 28.0% to 17,603

For the month of March:

• Median Sales Price increased 7.1% to $149,900
• Days on Market decreased 9.7% to 144
• Percent of Original List Price Received increased 3.8% to 92.1%
• Months Supply of Inventory decreased 37.2% to 4.8

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report.

From The Skinny.

RIS Media

Pending home sales increased in March and are well above a year ago, another signal the housing market is recovering, according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

The Pending Home Sales Index, a forward-looking indicator based on contract signings, rose 4.1 percent to 101.4 in March from an upwardly revised 97.4 in February and is 12.8 percent above March 2011 when it was 89.9. The data reflects contracts but not closings.

The index is now at the highest level since April 2010 when it reached 111.3.

Lawrence Yun, NAR chief economist, said 2012 is expected to be a year of recovery for housing. “First quarter sales closings were the highest first quarter sales in five years. The latest contract signing activity suggests the second quarter will be equally good,” he says.

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Article by: JIM BUCHTA , Star Tribune

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac want lenders to act within 30 days of getting a short sale offer.

The short sale process could get a lot quicker starting this summer under new rules that will require lenders to respond to offers within a month.

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the nation’s two largest mortgage backers, will implement the guidelines on June 15. The changes require mortgage servicers to make a decision within 30 days of receiving a short sale offer. They also must consider requests for pre-approved short sales within that same timeframe.

If the lender needs more than 30 days, it must give borrowers weekly status updates and a decision within 60 days of the initial application. This extension gives lenders more time to determine the value of the property or to get the approval of a mortgage insurer.

The moves are aimed at streamlining the short sale process, which often takes months to complete. Faster response times could help thousands of local homeowners. During March, there were 4,084 short sale listings in the Twin Cities area.

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By Tara Nelson

One of the first things many homebuyers look for are the unmistakable signs of something called ‘pride of ownership.’ As a whole, it’s a relatively intangible concept: there are just homes that have it – reeking of their owners’ love and meticulous care for the property — and homes that, well, don’t.

I’ve watched firsthand as buyers who like a cute home that is in generally good shape literally talk themselves into looking at a more homes once they start to notice one rickety gate, which snowballed into a nitpicky laundry list of little, tiny fixes the seller had left undone. The challenge is that between deciding whether and when to sell, staging, interviewing agents and determining a list price, it can be tempting for homeowners to fall into the trap of deferring maintenance on a home they might sell soon.

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