Wednesday brought a double dose of housing statistics. Both the National Association of Realtors and the Minnesota Association of Realtors released their latest sales reports. Across the country, March sales rose 4 percent from February. At the same time, prices remained weak, falling 6 percent to $159,600.
Those numbers were slightly better than expected, according to several national economists, who expected sales to rise between 2 and 3 percent.
As is typical in Minnesota, sales increased much more dramatically from February to March. The state association said that the number of closed sales that happened in Minnesota rose 35 percent to 5,021 in March from 3,718 in February (not seasonally adjusted). Sale prices from month to month remained virtually flat at just under $130,000, though compared to a year ago, they were down 11 percent.
The group said that for the first three months of the year, the median home price statewide was down 9 percent. Closed sales so far this year are also down almost 9 percent.
Last week we reported that home sales in the Twin Cities 11-county metro area had fallen 4 percent and that prices had fallen 15 percent compared with last year, according to Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors. Compared with February, March sales were up 49 percent.
