Minnesota is following the Twin Cities and the rest of the nation with a fall dip in home sales. That's according to new data from the Minnesota Association of Realtors, which shows that were 6,599 home closings during October, down 2.2 percent compared with last year. Low inventory, fewer foreclosure sales and an increase in more expensive sales helped boost the median prices of those sales to $175,000, a 12.2-percent increase over last year.

Also on Friday, the National Association of Realtors said that existing home sales nationwide were down 3.3 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.12 million sales compared with September, but 6.0 percent higher than last year. Sales were down for the second month in a row.

The trends were similar in the Twin Cities metro, according to a report released earlier this month

Agents blame the slowdown on higher mortgage rates, the government shut-down and the approach of winter. Lawrence Yun, NAR's chief economist, said the declines have been no suprise. "Low inventory is holding back sales while at the same time pushing up home prices in most of the country." More new construction is needed to help relieve the inventory pressure and moderate price gains."