Real Estate Market Picking Up Steam in Burnsville, Savage

The recession-era funk that has afflicted the housing market, seems to be lifting, at least in Burnsville and Savage.

Year to date statistics from September show steady improvement.

Burnsville and Savage are not market anomalies. Real estate is seeing a rebound across the 13-county Twin Cities metro area, according to a report issued by the Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS® on Oct. 12. One trend fueling market recovery is the waning of the foreclosure crisis that began in 2008. The influx of cheap foreclosure properties flooding the market has significantly diminished. 

“One of the most encouraging changes in the market has been more traditional homes and fewer foreclosures," said Cari Linn, President of the Minneapolis Area Association of REALTORS®. “There's finally some room to breathe for traditional sellers."

Just 30.6 percent of the new listings in September were foreclosure properties or short sales, the lowest percentage seen since June of 2008. As a result, the region saw more homes sold, a reduction in turnaround time, and higher prices. On average, sellers were able to get 94.8 percent of the list price, rather than taking a large loss.

Only one thing is missing: Seller confidence. Over the 13-county area, the number of homes offered for sale has been declining for 20 successive months. As of the September report, the number of homes on the market hit a nine-year low, dropping a whopping 29.4 percent to 15,996 properties.

The number of homes for sale has dropped for 20 consecutive months and is below 16,000 for the first time since December 2003. Months' supply of inventory fell 40.9 percent to 4.0 months. This indicates that the market is on the brink of favoring sellers. Figures below 4.0 months supply are moving toward a sellers' market.