Pace slows, but Twin Cities home sales climb

Twin Cities home sales in September continued to log gains over the same month last year, but the pace of growth has slowed in recent months.

That's also true of the median sales price for Twin Cities homes, which continued to rise last month but at a slower pace than earlier in the year. In September, the median price reached $195,000, a roughly 12 percent increase over September 2012.

David Jagerson, a realtor with Coldwell Banker Burnet in Wayzata, said the market consists of several different segments. And certain areas are enjoying a far stronger recovery than others.

"I think that best locations that didn't really go down as much are really back to their peak levels," he said. "Other portions of the marketplace, based on the age of the housing, the style of the housing, or its location that went down further are having a harder time going back to parity or to where they had been positioned before the real estate recession."

Foreclosures made up less than a quarter of all completed sales last month. Just two years earlier, they comprised nearly half of all completed sales.

However, the broad metrics still point to a healthier market, with fewer foreclosures and homes selling more quickly than they had in six years.

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