Great home buying opportunities exist in foreclosure home listing in Minnesota as home prices continue to fall throughout the state.
In addition to a greatly improved home affordability, the unemployment rate in Minnesota is also improving, giving better profit and employment prospects for investors and home buyers.
In September, the state unemployment rate dropped to 7.3 percent, as the national jobless rate rose to 9.8 percent. The Minnesota Employment and Economic Development Department reported that around 15,000 more residents got jobs in September, although 7,900 workers lost their jobs during the month.
Home prices in Minnesota, particularly in the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, have been falling because of the continued rise in foreclosures. According to realtors in the state, many houses for sale are down to their price levels in 2000.
As reported recently by a foreclosure monitoring firm, the pace of foreclosures in Minnesota increased by over 16 percent in the July to September quarter, compared to the previous period. The foreclosure rate of one out of every 217 homes put Minnesota 18th in a ranking of U.S. states based on foreclosure growth rates.
A total of 10,620 default and foreclosure notices were filed, with more than 5,000 residential units posted in foreclosure home listing. Compared to the same three-month period last year, the foreclosure pace this year in Minnesota rose by more than 100 percent.
According to local realtors, house sales have been rising in Saint Paul and Minneapolis because of sharply reduced prices. Other factors are lower mortgage rates and the efforts of first time homebuyers to beat the expiration of the federal tax credit.
The realtors also reported that almost 50 percent of home sales in recent weeks in Saint Paul and Minnesota are foreclosures and short sales. The prediction that more residential properties will enter the market has been welcomed by prospective home buyers, but has been causing concerns in the housing sector. Analysts have predicted that house prices in Saint Paul and Minneapolis will fall further by more than 15 percent.
The cities of Duluth and Rochester have also been enduring price declines, but at a slower rate than the Twin Cities. House prices in both cities have been declining by more than 6 percent, although Rochester is holding up more strongly, with its foreclosure home listing still filled with a lot of affordable residential units.
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