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Lack of quality homes for sale causing problems

Minneapolis, MN:  Who would have thought we would be saying this, but strong demand for housing is now running into supply problems, according to the National Association of Realtors® (NAR), and what I see and hear from my mortgage clients everyday.
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Homes For Sale:
The lack of quality supply in homes for sale, especially in the under $150,000 price range in the Minneapolis / St Paul area if very evident with the number of clients unable to find a home that doesn’t need a lot of repair.  Any home in good condition, and priced right for today’s market is selling very fast, with multiple offers, and within just days of being put on the market. Home buyers need to be pre-approved, and ready to immediately offer full price.
Nationally, signed purchase agreements  in February and NAR’s Pending Home Sales Index slipped 0.4 percent from the previous month.

The Index, an indicator of future home sales, dropped to 104.8 from a revised 105.2 in January, but is still at a recent high, second only to April 2010 when it reached 110.9 shortly before the end a government home buyer tax credit program.  The index was 8.4 percent higher than a year earlier when it was 96.6 and February marked the 22nd month that contract activity increased on an annual basis.

On a regional basis the Index declined 2.5 percent in the Northeast but was 6.8 percent higher than a year earlier at 82.8.  The Midwest was up 0.4 percent month over month to 103.6 and 13.2 percent year over year.  Pending home sales in the South slipped 0.3 percent to an index of 118.8 in February but are 12.1 percent above February 2012.  In the West the index increased 0.1 percent in February to 101.4 but is 0.8 percent below a year ago.

The National Association of Realtors expects existing-home sales to rise about 7 percent in 2013 to approximately 5 million sales, which is near the current level of activity.  The volume of home sales appears to be leveling off with the quality inventory problems, and the leveling of the index means little change is likely in the pace of sales over the next couple months.

Because of limited inventory of quality homes,  NAR also expects the median existing home price to increase about 7 percent, while they expect mortgage nterest rates to slowly move up to closer to 4% by the end of the year.

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