Weekly Market Activity Report

Here's the latest from MAAR:

Fireworks, fried food and family fun have once again conspired to drag down the Twin Cities housing market during the first week of July. With Twin Cities residents taking their annual break to celebrate Independence Day, new listings in the region took a swan dive for the week ending July 7—dropping 600 units from last week and 14.2 percent behind this week last year. Buyer activity also declined from the week before, but not as severely. Newly signed purchase agreements (pending sales) fell by only 200 units from the previous week and were actually ahead of last year at this time by 1.2 percent.

This week's edition of the MAAR Weekly Market Activity Report features updated figures for the Housing Affordability Index (HAI) and the Housing Supply Outlook (HSO) for July 2007. The HAI took another steep and significant fall this month to 127, down 12 points in the last two months due to seasonal increases in mortgage rates and home prices. Affordability is essential to the long-term health and accessibility of our housing market, so it will be important to keep our eyes on the HAI in the months ahead. The HSO increased to 9.6 months, which means it will take the current supply of homes on the market roughly 9.6 months to completely sell through.