Week of July 2, 2007

Week by week and month by month, we have been saying the same

thing for well over a year now. The Twin Cities housing market is in a

state of post-boom correction and recalibration; both buyer and seller

activity are down from 2006. It's also important to note that the 2006

market was down from 2005, making our current activity levels seem

even slower in comparison. Newly signed purchase agreements

(pending sales) for the week ending June 23 were behind last year by

9.3 percent and behind 2005 by 33.8 percent. Seller activity is also on

the decline, but to a much lesser degree than buyer activity. New

listings for the same week were 2.2 percent behind 2006 and 0.8

percent ahead of 2005.

As of the morning of Monday, July 2, there are 34,630 single-family

housing units for sale in the Twin Cities region, up 12.2 percent from

last year and 60.2 percent from two years ago. Inventory growth has

been less dramatic this year due to a relative drop-off in new

construction activity. One year ago, new construction housing units

for sale accounted for 19.4 percent of total inventory; new units

account for just 15.2 percent of inventory today.