Light at the end of the tunnel...
We will never know when we are officially at the bottom of the real estate market in the Twin Cities until we are 6 months passed it. That's just the nature of the data. However, I've recently stumbled on to some data that shows if we aren't there now we are close enough.
The data I collected is for three 12 month periods ending in August. From September 07 through August 08 the median sales price in the Twin Cites 13 county area was $209,900. It then dropped 19% to $170,000 the next year ending August 09. Now looking at the median sales price for the 12 month period ending August of this year we see a 0% change; still at $170,000. I know it's just one stat but I still think it is very telling of a turn around or at least a huge decrease in the rate of, well, decrease. Combine that with the ridiculous interest rates I can confidently say that there is no better time to be a buyer. And if prices do go down further, A.) it won't be significant and B.) it will be offset by any increase in interest rates.
Just because I'm anal and I wanted to come up with a graph that actually shows an uptick in the market I pulled data just from the month of August over the last 5 years in the Twin Cities and after a 14% decrease 2 years ago, we actually have a 1.5% increase from August 2009 to August 2010 (August only). Resulting in the following graph where you can actually see a trend going up.
Sorry it is small. I could have made it bigger but then you would have to go through the mind-bending hassle of scrolling to the right.
