Interesting times. Now is a great time to be a home BUYER.

Mark Allen, CEO of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, had this to say in his weekly market activity report:

Twin Cities residential sellers are joining buyers in exercising caution as we move through the annual autumn market deceleration. For the week ending October 28, new listings were 6 percent behind the same week in 2005. Pending sales were even farther behind—24 percent for the same week-to-week comparison.

Mark Allen, CEO of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, had this to say in his weekly market activity report:

As we work through the fall market deceleration, buyer activity in the Twin Cities residential real estate market remains lethargic; pending sales were 28 percent behind 2005 for the week ending October 14. Helping to slow the buyer’s market is a continued drop in seller activity. New listings on the market were 3 percent behind the 2005 figures for this time period.

Kenneth Harney, columnist for RealtyTimes, wrote an interesting article last week that asked a simple question: “Is it a housing bust or a media-driven panic?”

We have re-published the entire article here for your convenience.

Please visit RealtyTimes for more in-depth and thought-provoking articles on the real estate industry.

Economists Beginning to Challenge Media’s Negative Drumbeat on Housing
by Kenneth R. Harney

Is it a housing bust or a media-driven panic? Mike Moran, chief economist for Wall Street’s Daiwa Securities America, Inc., says he’s surprised that virtually nobody has challenged the constant drumbeat of negative headlines and TV news warnings of imminent crashes and home price meltdowns.

Mark Allen, CEO of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, had this to say in his weekly market activity report:

Seller activity in the Twin Cities residential real estate market declined relative to the same week in 2005 for the third time in four weeks. Approximately 2,100 new listings were added to the local market for the week ending September 30, which translates to an 8 percent decrease from last year at this time. Fewer new listings is a sensible outcome for a sluggish buying environment where pending sales are 24 percent behind last year.

Mark Allen, CEO of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors, had this to say in his weekly market activity report:

For only the third time in 2006—and for the first time since July—weekly new listings declined relative to the same week in 2005, posting a figure that was 0.5 percent behind the week ending September 10, 2005. This decline is a continuation of the gradual slowdown in seller activity that has taken place during the last two months and is an indication that both consumers and builders may recognize what REALTORS® have been saying for months—that the market has shifted in the buyer’s favor.