The impact of the spread of Coronavirus continues to grow as the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 3.51% last week. Lawrence Yun, chief economist at the National Association of REALTORS®, explained that the upper-end of the housing market may soften with the temporary loss of Chinese buyers. “China has been the most important source of foreign demand for real estate,” he explained. Until temporary travel bans are lifted, many potential Chinese buyers will be restricted from visiting the U.S., which will in turn reduce the number of active home buyers, particularly at the high end of the market.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending February 8:

• New Listings increased 14.1% to 1,315
• Pending Sales increased 18.4% to 960
• Inventory decreased 15.6% to 7,556

For the month of January:

• Median Sales Price increased 4.2% to $270,000
• Days on Market increased 1.5% to 66
• Percent of Original List Price Received decreased 0.1% to 97.0%
• Months Supply of Homes For Sale decreased 16.7% to 1.5

All comparisons are to 2019
Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report. From MAAR Market Data News.