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

Discerning chart viewers will notice a roller coaster-like plunge in buyer and seller activity for the week ending November 25, and those with an even keener eye for detail will notice a similar drop exactly one year earlier. The answer for this annual dip can be explained with turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing. Activity should rebound in the coming weeks before an end-of-year slowdown during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Compared to one year previous, buyers remain on the sidelines despite a favorable low-interest environment. Newly executed purchase agreements (pending sales) were behind the same week in 2005 by 7 percent. Sellers continue to show recognition of sluggish sales as new listings on the market were 1 percent behind for the same time comparison.

This week’s edition of the MAAR Weekly Market Activity Report features a brand new metric: mortgage rates. The October 2006 mortgage rate for the Twin Cities was 6.2 percent for 30-year fixed rate loans, according to HSH Associates Financial Publishers, Inc. Rates should remain relatively steady as we enter 2007.

This edition also features an updated Supply-Demand Ratio (SDR) for December 2006 of 11.01, which means that there will be roughly 11.01 homes on the market for every active buyer in the month of December. This is 54 percent higher than December 2005 and means a longer wait for area home sellers. The SDR is always at its highest point in December while buyers take a pause during the holiday season.

Source: MAAR,  12/4/2006.

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