Arrows on the Twin Cities real estate chart pointed upward for the fifth consecutive month, according to the Residential Real Estate Price Report Index, a monthly analysis of the 13-county Twin Cities area prepared by the Shenehon Center for Real Estate at the University of St. Thomas’ Opus College of Business.
“Twin Cities’ housing data for June continued to show encouraging signs for the fifth month in a row,” observed Herb Tousley, director of real estate programs at the university.
Will the trend will continue? “In 2011 the market was in a similar condition after a spring and early summer run-up, only to be derailed by a lack of confidence created by the federal debt-level-ceiling controversy, the U.S. government credit downgrade, and the emergence of financial problems in Europe,” Tousley said.
“Barring any serious external shocks, the second half of 2012 will test the durability of gains made in the first half of the year,” he said. “Historically, sales volume and median prices have decreased in the second half of the year.
“Will sales volumes and median prices continue to exceed last year’s levels? If the answer is yes, then it would appear the market has established the beginning of a sustained recovery,” he said.
Tousley cautioned that recent market gains do not mean the mortgage foreclosure crisis is behind us. “There are still many properties that need to be sold and the relatively high rate of distressed property sales is going to be with us for several years,” he said. Distressed property sales are foreclosures or short sales, which are homes sold for a price less than the outstanding mortgage balance.
Read the full story in the Bulletin for some of the encouraging signs found in June’s market data.
