The Department of Labor’s initial jobless claims report released April 16th showed 5,245,000 new weekly claims, which is a decrease of nearly 1.4 million from last week. New initial claims are expected to continue to decline but still remain at high levels in the next few weeks. This week the Commerce Department reported new construction building permits were at a seasonally adjusted annual pace of 1.35 million in March, which is 5% higher than last year. However, that is expected to decline in April as the impact of COVID-19 is more fully realized.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending April 18:

• New Listings decreased 23.9% to 1,228
• Pending Sales decreased 27.8% to 989
• Inventory decreased 12.0% to 9,025

For the month of March:

• Median Sales Price increased 8.0% to $297,000
• Days on Market decreased 7.6% to 61
• Percent of Original List Price Received increased 0.6% to 99.2%
• Months Supply of Homes For Sale decreased 10.0% to 1.8

All comparisons are to 2019

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report. From MAAR Market Data News.