April 19, 2007

Current listing inventory - 262 active listings in Owatonna as of today. Normally we only update this blog on Monday's but inventory has continued to rocket up this week. Levels had been trending downward over the last 6 months but have now set a new high, blowing away the previous high of 243 in October 2006. This will bear watching over the next several weeks to see if it is only a quirk in the market or a trend to be concerned with. Average days on the market in Owatonna has fallen to 116 days. As mentioned on the 16th this is probably due in part to the number of new listings on the market, new listings = many listings with low days on the market. This will also bear watching over the next few weeks. We have begun this week to track the number of pending listings as well, this will tell us if we are seeing houses getting accepted offers. Currently we have 46 houses pending in Owatonna with an average days on the market of 96. Over 50% of those pendings are homes less than $150,000. What is a little puzzling currently, is that in the past we have traditionally seen those same sellers then move up to more expensive home. However we are not seeing the same amount of activity in some of the higher price ranges. We will keep watching. Interest rates have fallen slightly, probably due to the good news on inflation.