Second home buyers and people who are embracing their ability to work remotely are helping fuel double-digit gains in home sales in outstate Minnesota.
That's according to a January report from Minnesota Realtors (MNR), which said there were 4,788 home sales across the state last month, a 16% increase over last year. Those figures include the seven-county Twin Cities metro, which saw a nearly 14% increase in sales. That gain, however, was outpaced by much of northern Minnesota.
"January was still very much a seller's market," said Chris Galler, chief executive of MNR, which represents the state's 21,000 Realtors. "Heightened demand was met with a decline in new listings, exacerbating the impact of historically low inventory in a market where consumers are primed to buy."
During January, 11 out of the 13 economic development regions posted double-digit annual increases in closings with the Northwest region posting the biggest gain (40%). The Southeast and West Central regions showed the smallest increases — 6% and nearly 4%, respectively.
Galler notes that those closings were for deals that were signed mostly during the last quarter of last year — a sign that buyers were shopping at a time when the outstate market normally slows.
"With the shifts in lifestyle and working habits brought on by the pandemic, people are hungry for space," he said. As long as interest rates remain low, this trend is likely to continue."
The shortage of listings that's plagued the Twin Cities metro is also a problem in outstate Minnesota. At the current sales pace there were only enough listings to last one month, a 12% decline compared with last year.
In many parts of the state, especially in northern Minnesota, buyers outpaced sellers. During January there were 12% fewer new listings than the year before, causing the number of active listings at the end of the month to fall by nearly half.
