Edina Realty Says Housing Sales are Way Up as Delinquency Rate Drops

Edina, Minn.— June 1, 2015 – Edina Realty reports that home sales are the highest they’ve been in nearly 10 years, thanks in part to a group of homeowners who can now re-enter the market.

“We’re seeing a huge influx of buyers, many of whom are finally able to get back into the market now that it’s largely recovered,” said Greg Mason, president and CEO of Edina Realty Home Services. “We’re even seeing an emerging segment of homeowners: ‘boomerang’ buyers,” Mason said. Boomerang buyers are buyers who are able to get back into the housing market after losing a home to foreclosure or short sale.

According to a RealtyTrac report, over seven million boomerang buyers will purchase a home in the next eight years, including around 100,000 buyers from the local market. The height of the foreclosure market was in 2009, when 43 percent of all closed sales in the Twin Cities were foreclosures or short sales.

The national mortgage delinquency rate or the rate of borrowers who are 60 or more days past due fell to below 3 percent for the first time in seven years, according to TransUnion’s Quarterly Industry Insights Report. The delinquency rate peaked in Q1 2010 at 6.9 percent. In Minnesota, that rate for borrowers who were 90 days or more delinquent was at just 1.99 percent, according to a March 2015 CoreLogic finding.

CoreLogic also paints a bright picture for the 5.4 million homeowners who are still ‘underwater’ or have negative equity in their homes. They project the CoreLogic Home Price Index will rise 5 percent, which will lead about one million homeowners out of their negative equity position. Overall, nearly 92 percent of Minnesota homeowners and 89 percent of Wisconsin homeowners have equity in their homes, according to a fourth quarter 2014 CoreLogic report.

“It's great to see buyers who had been shut out be able to re-enter the housing market and find a home that truly meets their family’s needs,” Mason said. “And more responsible and practical lending requirements like those in place today will lead to a healthier housing market in the long-term as well.”

The National Association of REALTORS® expects home sales to increase nearly 8 percent while housing prices are also expected to rise another 4 percent in 2015. The median sales price of a home in the Twin Cities 13-county region rose 10 percent over last year and is now at $215,600, according to MAAR data.

For more information on the housing market, to get a market analysis on your home or compare interest rates from Edina Realty Mortgage, visit www.edinarealty.com or call Edina Realty Customer Care at 952-928-5563.

Edina Realty is a Berkshire Hathaway affiliate and a wholly-owned subsidiary of HomeServices of America, Inc. It is one of the nation’s largest real estate companies with approximately 60 real estate offices and 2,300 REALTORS® throughout Minnesota and western Wisconsin. Edina Realty's family of companies includes Edina Realty, Edina Realty Title, and Edina Realty Mortgage. Edina Realty closed nearly 29,000 real estate transactions and more than $6.9 billion in sales volume in 2014. For more information, visit www.edinarealty.com, m.edinarealty.com, or find us on Facebook: facebook.com/EdinaRealty; and Twitter: twitter.com/Edina_Realty