Roseville Home Sales, Median Price Rise Again in June

Reflecting a rebounding market, home sales are continuing an upswing in Roseville, according to the latest report of the Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors (MAAR). 

The association's data shows that June's median home prices in Roseville rose 28.3 percent from the same month a year earlier. That figure was $207,925, up from $162,000 from June, 2011.

That ongoing uptick mirrored the rising fortunes of the Twin Cities-area housing market where the median home price posted a 10.7 percent year-over-year increase, the fourth consecutive monthly gain in 2012.

Meanwhile, Roseville had 48 completed home sales in June, a 26.3 percent increase from the same period in 2011 when the city posted 38 completed sales.

The city's year-to-date total closed sales is up 39.5 percent from the same period in 2011. There were 180 completed home sales for the first six months of 2012 compared with 129 for the same period in 2011, MAAR reported.

Julie Overbye, a veteran real estate agent at Edina Realty in Roseville, said the latest housing figures are "showing recovery in the market. That's really encouraging. I think definitely things are turning around. But I think there will be a slow recovery."

Overbye said the latest housing sales also show that the market is changing from a buyers' to a sellers' market. She added a growing number of sellers with homes priced between $200,000 and $300,000 are getting multiple offers.

Across the region, Realtors agree, the market is finally starting to tilt in favor of sellers, rather than buyers.

The bottom line: The median sales price in June 2012 rose 10.7 percent from the previous June to $179,500. That’s the second-largest annual gain since January 2004 and the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year gains. Excluding only June 2010, home prices in the Greater Twin Cities area are now at their highest level since October 2008.

That's a result of declining supply, as well as rising demand. In June 2012, buyers signed 4,917 purchase agreements, 16 percent higher than June 2011. Meanwhile, the number of homes for sale has dropped for 17 consecutive months, down 31.2 percent from last year to 17,103 active listings–the lowest inventory reading for any month since January 2004. Months’ supply of inventory, a standard industry measure of inventory, dropped 44.6 percent to 4.4 months, the lowest reading for any month since December 2005.

Realtors cited several other bits of good news from the close of the second quarter: Homes are selling in 113 days, on average, down 22 percent from last year. Sellers are getting an average of 95.1 percent of their list price, up 4 percent from last year. And cash buyers are making up 19.3 percent of all closed sales.

Perhaps most significantly, people putting their homes on the market no longer have to compete with quite such a huge flood of short sales and foreclosures, collectively known as "distressed sales." In June, distressed sales accounted for 30.6 percent of all new listings and 34.6 percent of all closed sales, the lowest shares since June 2008 and August 2008, respectively.

“It’s difficult to find a negative trend in the local housing market right now,” Cari Linn, MAAR's president, said in a news release. “After many years of decline, it’s a welcome change of pace.”