Housing market on the mend in some cities

After months of bad news there are signs the Twin Cities housing market is recovering, but a lot depends on where you live.

We learned on Friday that home sales jumped 21 percent in March thanks to low interest rates and tax breaks, but some communities are more active than others.

Todd Shipman recently sold his home near Lake Calhoun for nearly $900,000, but he says the lower of the market is where the real boom is happening.

"The first-time home buyer credit of $8,000 is really fueling the fire," Shipman said.

Home prices have dropped in part because of foreclosure sales. Interest rates have dropped to historic lows. All those factors combined to spike a 21 percent increase in home sales in March 2009 compared to March 2008.

But it's still hard to say whether sold signs are the new sign of the times or just a temporary rebound.

"As with any market rebound, there are gainers and losers," Shipman said.

Brooklyn Center saw a 184 percent increase. Brooklyn Park is up 57 percent. St. Paul is up 32 percent and Minneapolis up 10 percent. Many of those sales have been sparked by first-time home buyers and foreclosure sales.

On the other hand, other suburbs are not seeing a big rebound. Minnetonka is up just two percent and Edina is down two percent. Eagan is down 21 percent and Waconia down 51 percent.

Shipman says some of that is because there's a migration back to the core cities.

In terms of home prices, the median sales price of all homes was down 23 percent from a year ago, but that's skewed heavily by so many foreclosure sales. The sales price involving just traditional home sales was down just two percent.



Jason Donn