Hey guys! Its Nick Landon of The Lake Minnetonka Home Team and I wanted to take some time to talk about housing sales from 2015 for our area and the direction of our market. I’m going to go over the three cities on Lake Minnetonka where The Lake Minnetonka Home Team does most of their business. These three cities include Mound, Orono, and Minnetrista.

City of Mound: Real Estate in 2015

Mound saw an upward surge in its housing market during the 2015 year and I plan to see it gaining momentum into 2016. New listings in Mound increased by 13% and closed homes increased by a whopping 23%! Average sale price of homes went from $261,132 to $284,620 which is a nice jump of  9% in home value. Days on market are still hovering just above 100, which is a  below average number for the Lake Minnetonka  area and homes are fetching 95.1% of original asking price which is phenomenal!

*Sample size from 372 listings in 2015

City of Orono Real: Estate in 2015

Just like Mound, Orono saw an uplift in its housing market in 2015.  New listings in Orono shot up 10% and closed sales were 33% higher than the previous year! Average price per home was up 7% at $783,000 but homes only fetched 93% of their original asking price, which was down 1% from 2014. Days on market was 172 days on average which was 20% higher than 2014, this explains why we dropped 1% on the original asking price. The longer a home is on, the more likely it is to be reduced in price.

*Sample size from 326 listings in 2015

City of Minnetrista Real: Estate in 2015

Minnetrista also benefited from the year 2015. Listings were up by 18% and closings were up by 26% at 153 closed homes! Average home price in Minnetrista  rose 13% to $558,800 from its 2014 levels and remained stable at 95% of asking price. Days on market went unchanged also with an average time of 131 days.

*Sample size from 375 listings in 2015

Looking Ahead

Our Lake Minnetonka area saw great numbers in 2015 and look to continue that into 2016. In 2015 Residential real estate had its best year since 2005 and housing demand has followed suit reaching ten year highs as well. With this demand we have seen home prices jump up 5-10% but we still lag behind our peak in 2008-09  by 10-15%, with the higher percents being on the more expensive homes. Even though inventory was up in 2015, we still need to keep that momentum into 2016. Buyers are out there and with the interest rate height projected to be 4.5% by the end of 2016, people will want to get into a home and lock in a low rate. It may sound scary but 4.5% is still a great rate when compared to the past.

Sellers will be happy to hear that over the past 45 months we have seen a continuous year over year rise in home prices. If you are thinking of selling it might be a great time this spring as there are plenty of buyers out there and your home value will  be the highest it has been in the past four years. We are sitting in an almost balanced market between buyer and seller, some leeway still to the buyer but it is not much. Being this stabilized in the housing market is great for the economy and consumer. With so much positive data going forward The Lake Minnetonka Home Team will be looking forward to helping plenty of people this coming spring and summer!

*Data and numbers provided by MAAR