June 20, 2007

Current listing inventory - 289 active listings in Owatonna as of today. Inventory has climbed again this week. We continue to set new high's every week. Average days on the market in Owatonna has crept up a bit again this week to 125 days. The number of pending listings has risen this week which is a good sign that homes are still selling. Currently we have 61 houses pending in Owatonna with an average days on the market of 94. This difference between the average days on the market in the active listings and the pending listing is a very telling sign of how important it is to price a property correctly during the first 30 days of the listing. Pricing a home correctly is still the single most important thing a seller can do to get their home sold in our current market. A new feature starting today is the inclusion of Closed properties since 01-01-07. There have been 166 properties sold so far this year with an average days on market time of 126 days. We have seen certain price ranges with very large differences between the days on market time of Active vs Pending vs Closed. The $130,000 to $150,000 price range for example varies more than 30 days of market time. Interest rates went up twice last week but have fallen a bit this week and are sitting at 6.375% on June 19, 2007. Interest rates are always stated for a 30 year fixed rate loan.