September 4, 2007

Current listing inventory - 261 active listings in Owatonna as of today. Inventory has again dropped slightly and that continues to be an excellent sign for home sellers. Average days on the market in Owatonna has actually dropped a tick again and is 144 days. The number of pending listings has fallen this week to 40 houses, but this was to be expected as we approached the end of the month. Average days on the market is 129. An interesting stat since last week, we jumped up 24 days in the days on market count in the pendings. That is due to several of the long time listings (2-400+day listings, 1-300+day & 5-100+ day) finally getting an accepted offer. There have been 281 properties Closed properties since 01-01-07, with an average days on market time of 122 days, we are continuing to see homes get sold. A very encouraging indicator this week is the fact that we have had 15 homes close since last week but the pendings have only fallen by 6, which means we were seeing good home selling activity this past week & the last week of August is traditionally one of the slowest weeks of the year. Interest rates have remained stable at 6.125% on August 27, 2007. Home Buyers - If you've been sitting back, waiting for the right to to jump in and purchase a new home, it is starting to look like now is a good time. The Fed is expected to drop interest rates on 9-18-07 and that should spur more market activity.