Housing market in the Twin Cities loosened just a bit last month

Rising mortgage rates have made houses more expensive, but there’s a silver lining for buyers: More choices and a little less competition.

During May, there was a 3.2% increase in newly-listed houses, according to a monthly report from the Minneapolis Area Realtors released Wednesday.

That gain, coupled with a double-digit decline in pending sales, left buyers with 6,766 house listings at the end of the month, 5.3 % more than last year and the first annual inventory gain in more than two years.

“We’ve gone from an average of 50 offers to an average of 5 to 10 offers,” said Brenda Tushaus, chief executive officer of Re/Max Results. “The buyer demand is still there, but it’s more manageable.

Though higher mortgage rates are tempering demand, there are still more buyers than sellers in some areas and there’s still plenty of competition.

On average, houses sold in just 23 days during May, 4.2% faster than last year. With buyers still making strong offers, sellers got more than 100% of their asking price, and that’s caused the median price of all sales during the month to increase 9% to a record $375,000.

One sign that the market is becoming a little less tight, Tushaus said, is that open houses are returning. She said the company’s internal open house tracking system has been “blowing up.”

“At this time last year the houses were selling too fast to hold opens,” Tushaus said. “This doesn’t mean that inventory has made a comeback. Rather, houses are now lasting on the market for more than a few hours.”

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