Housing market is looking good.

Weekly Market Activity Report

Like Adam West as Batman, the market for home sales in the Twin Cities went POW! during the week ending August 30. For the week, there were 965 purchase agreements signed—a whopping increase of 51.3 percent from the same week last year. That's the highest year-over-year increase in pending sales since we began tracking that figure on a weekly basis in 2004. Home-buying activity is particularly heavy relative to last year due in all likelihood to a) the historically sluggish showing in August of last year as the credit crunch took hold, b) a bevy of buyers taking advantage of the final days of FHA's seller-funded downpayment assistance program, which sunsets on October 1 of this year and (c) new home buyers getting off the fence and taking advantage of the new home buyer tax credit of up to $7,500.

This week's edition of the MAAR Weekly Market Activity Report features updated figures for several key metrics. Days on Market Until Sale dipped slightly to 143 but remains up from last year by 5.8 percent. The Percent of Original List Price Received at Sale increased slightly to 92.7 but remains down from the healthier levels of the past several years. The Housing Affordability Index increased to 151, thanks to falling prices and interest rates.

The Months Supply of Inventory fell to 9.9 months. This means it will take the current crop of properties for sale approximately 9.9 months to completely sell through, given current sales rates. This is dead-even with this time last year, another indication that the market isn't continuing to shift in the buyer's favor anymore for the time being. A balanced market is thought to have a 5- to 6-month supply rate.