logo
Minnesota's Housing Market: Boomers Moving, Guaranteed Cash Offers Booming

Minnesota's Housing Market: Boomers Moving, Guaranteed Cash Offers Booming

If you're thinking about buying or selling a house in Minnesota, the numbers are telling a story that most Minnesotans aren't hearing yet. Some people still talk about our "hot market." The reality on the ground is different.
When I look at publicly available numbers, real-time trends within my own brokerage, and anecdotal evidence, I'm seeing a significant shift from a seller's market to a buyer's market. And it's happening faster than the statistics are showing.
According to Redfin, Minnesota home prices were up 3.1% year-over-year in April, with a median price of $369,400. On the surface, that sounds like business as usual. But dig deeper, and you'll find the real story. The 80% Reality Check
The most telling statistic? Days on market.
Homes in Minnesota now spend 53 days on the market before going under contract, with a median of 27 days—up two days from last year. During the peak of our seller's market in 2022, that median number was just 17 days.
That's an 80% increase in just three years. Minnesota Median Days on Market (April): 2022: 15 days
2023: 24 days
2024: 25 days
2025: 27 days
Think about that. In 2021, if you listed your house on a Monday, you'd probably have multiple offers by the weekend. Today, you're looking at nearly a month before you even get to contract.
Looking at Kris Lindahl Real Estate's real-time data on showings and buyer activity, I can tell you that the shift is even more dramatic. Fewer showings, more inventory sitting, pickier buyers. It's all there.
Additional data paints an even clearer picture. In Minnesota, we now have nearly 19,000 properties for sale, up 7.6% year-over-year, while buyer demand has essentially flatlined, with only a 0.8% increase in homes sold. When supply is growing and demand is stagnant, you don't need an economics degree to see where things are going. The Cash Offer Surge
Here's another indicator you won't see in the news: Our Guaranteed Cash Offer program just had record-breaking months in April and May.
When more people are choosing to bypass the open market entirely, that tells you something about seller confidence. Homeowners are seeing the writing on the wall and choosing speed, convenience, and certainty over the uncertainty of a traditional sale.
When you're competing with 19,000 other properties and facing pickier buyers, the appeal of a guaranteed sale becomes obvious: Why gamble on the open market when you can have certainty? The Baby Boomer Factor
Finally, there's a demographic shift that not enough people are talking about. According to the Minnesota State Demographic Center, "the aging of the baby boomer generation is unlike anything Minnesota has previously experienced." They project that more than 1 in 5 Minnesotans will be older adults by 2030. The demographic shift is staggering: The number of Minnesotans turning 65 between 2010 and 2030 will be greater than the past four decades combined.
The total number of older adults is anticipated to double between 2010 and 2030.
A significant number of our Guaranteed Cash Offer callers are adult children who inherited a property or need to sell a house quickly due to a parent's changing health and housing needs.
Just this week, we received a call from a father-daughter duo. The father said, "I'm 72 years old this year, and the house is getting away from me. I can't keep up with the upkeep on it. So I can either sell the house, or I can deal with half a dozen contractors that need to come out and fix things."
The daughter added, "My dad's house is in a condition where selling 'as is' would make sense for him. As his child, being able to have time to take what he wants and not having to rent a dumpster and clean out the house is appealing." What This Means for You
With boomers aging and mortgage rates showing no signs of falling, I expect the trend toward a buyers' market to continue in Minnesota, as well as the growth in accepted cash offers.
Bottom line: In Minnesota, buyers are getting pickier, inventory is rising, and sellers are choosing certainty over uncertainty.
Kris Lindahl is the founder and CEO of Kris Lindahl Real Estate and the inventor of the Guaranteed Cash Offer program.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Minnesota's Housing Market: Boomers Moving, Guaranteed Cash Offers Booming
Minnesota's Housing Market: Boomers Moving, Guaranteed Cash Offers Booming

Int'l Business Times

time3 days ago

  • Int'l Business Times

Minnesota's Housing Market: Boomers Moving, Guaranteed Cash Offers Booming

If you're thinking about buying or selling a house in Minnesota, the numbers are telling a story that most Minnesotans aren't hearing yet. Some people still talk about our "hot market." The reality on the ground is different. When I look at publicly available numbers, real-time trends within my own brokerage, and anecdotal evidence, I'm seeing a significant shift from a seller's market to a buyer's market. And it's happening faster than the statistics are showing. According to Redfin, Minnesota home prices were up 3.1% year-over-year in April, with a median price of $369,400. On the surface, that sounds like business as usual. But dig deeper, and you'll find the real story. The 80% Reality Check The most telling statistic? Days on market. Homes in Minnesota now spend 53 days on the market before going under contract, with a median of 27 days—up two days from last year. During the peak of our seller's market in 2022, that median number was just 17 days. That's an 80% increase in just three years. Minnesota Median Days on Market (April): 2022: 15 days 2023: 24 days 2024: 25 days 2025: 27 days Think about that. In 2021, if you listed your house on a Monday, you'd probably have multiple offers by the weekend. Today, you're looking at nearly a month before you even get to contract. Looking at Kris Lindahl Real Estate's real-time data on showings and buyer activity, I can tell you that the shift is even more dramatic. Fewer showings, more inventory sitting, pickier buyers. It's all there. Additional data paints an even clearer picture. In Minnesota, we now have nearly 19,000 properties for sale, up 7.6% year-over-year, while buyer demand has essentially flatlined, with only a 0.8% increase in homes sold. When supply is growing and demand is stagnant, you don't need an economics degree to see where things are going. The Cash Offer Surge Here's another indicator you won't see in the news: Our Guaranteed Cash Offer program just had record-breaking months in April and May. When more people are choosing to bypass the open market entirely, that tells you something about seller confidence. Homeowners are seeing the writing on the wall and choosing speed, convenience, and certainty over the uncertainty of a traditional sale. When you're competing with 19,000 other properties and facing pickier buyers, the appeal of a guaranteed sale becomes obvious: Why gamble on the open market when you can have certainty? The Baby Boomer Factor Finally, there's a demographic shift that not enough people are talking about. According to the Minnesota State Demographic Center, "the aging of the baby boomer generation is unlike anything Minnesota has previously experienced." They project that more than 1 in 5 Minnesotans will be older adults by 2030. The demographic shift is staggering: The number of Minnesotans turning 65 between 2010 and 2030 will be greater than the past four decades combined. The total number of older adults is anticipated to double between 2010 and 2030. A significant number of our Guaranteed Cash Offer callers are adult children who inherited a property or need to sell a house quickly due to a parent's changing health and housing needs. Just this week, we received a call from a father-daughter duo. The father said, "I'm 72 years old this year, and the house is getting away from me. I can't keep up with the upkeep on it. So I can either sell the house, or I can deal with half a dozen contractors that need to come out and fix things." The daughter added, "My dad's house is in a condition where selling 'as is' would make sense for him. As his child, being able to have time to take what he wants and not having to rent a dumpster and clean out the house is appealing." What This Means for You With boomers aging and mortgage rates showing no signs of falling, I expect the trend toward a buyers' market to continue in Minnesota, as well as the growth in accepted cash offers. Bottom line: In Minnesota, buyers are getting pickier, inventory is rising, and sellers are choosing certainty over uncertainty. Kris Lindahl is the founder and CEO of Kris Lindahl Real Estate and the inventor of the Guaranteed Cash Offer program.

Will employees in Germany be working longer shifts in the future?
Will employees in Germany be working longer shifts in the future?

Local Germany

time16-04-2025

  • Local Germany

Will employees in Germany be working longer shifts in the future?

As CDU leader Friedrich Merz prepares to be sworn in as Chancellor this May, he has set himself one primary goal: getting the economy moving again. Facing sluggish growth and back-to-back recessions, Germany has been slowly regaining its unflattering reputation as the "sick man of Europe" - a mantle it last shook off in the mid-2000s. For Merz, who wants Europe's largest economy to also become its strongest, the answer is drastic reform. Alongside other structural issues, one of the key things holding Germany back is its chronic shortage of workers. With the so-called Baby Boomer generation retiring in their droves, there aren't enough young and qualified employees to plug the widening skills gap. For the incoming government, there are two answers to this: more immigration, and getting people working more. For the first, the black-red coalition want to make it quicker and easier for skilled workers to move to the country and get their qualifications recognised. For the second, a number of new tax breaks and amendments are underway. How does Merz want to get people working more? In the coalition pact set out at the start of April, Merz has taken a two-pronged approach, with incentives for overtime as well as changes to existing workers' rights laws. In future, the government will encourage employees to take on extra hours with a new 'tax-free overtime' rule. If this sounds a little too good to be true, it is: the tax exemption only applies to overtime bonuses, rather than the hourly wage itself. READ ALSO: Is Germany set for a €15 an hour minimum wage? So if a worker is contracted to work 40 hours per week for €20 per hour, and earns €30 per hour for overtime, €10 of every overtime hour they work will effectively be tax-free. Workers in hospitality, care, logistics or other industries with night shifts and unsociable hours are likely to get the most out of these new incentives. Advertisement For pensioners, there's an even more generous scheme in the pipeline. Under the parties' plans, people of pension age could earn up to €2,000 per month tax free for staying in work for longer. More controversially, the CDU/CSU and SPD are also planning a shake-up of current working time regulations. Instead of the current eight hours per day, the parties want to move to a weekly maximum of 48 hours, which they say will give employers and their workers more "flexibility". What are people saying? Particularly in industries like care and hospitality, employers' associations have been thrilled at the news that regulated working hours in Germany could be re-jigged. "This gives hotels, restaurants, caterers and their employees more flexible options for reconciling working hours," said Sandra Warden, chief executive of the gastronomy association DEHOGA. Meanwhile, Isabell Halletz, CEO of the association of care employers, said the move reflected the more flexible working hours permitted during the pandemic. "The employees actually handled the additional room for manoeuvre very responsibly," she told MDR. "And they had the feeling that they could set their own individual working hours." A care home in Filderstadt, southern Germany. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Marijan Murat Trade unions, however, have sounded the alarm. Many warn that tax-free overtime could lead to a quiet erosion of working conditions, and that these policies could push employees to work longer hours as an obligation rather than a choice. According to the Federal Association of Unions (DGB), longer work days could also threaten the health of employees in the long run. "Employees who do not have strong union representation behind them are at risk of having to work 13-hour shifts," DGB director Yasmin Fahimi told the Augsburger Allgemeine . "Parcel delivery workers, for example, are already working far too long shifts." These long shifts will be "legitimised" by the shift in working hour regulations, the association warned. Unions have called for protections against abuse to be written into the law. READ ALSO: What are the results of Germany's four day work week trial? What are the current rules around working hours? Germany's working time laws - among the strictest in Europe - limit the standard working day to eight hours. This can be extended to ten hours during busy periods, but only if average working hours over six months don't exceed eight hours per day. Employees are entitled to at least eleven hours of rest between shifts, and work on Sundays and public holidays is generally prohibited, with limited exceptions. Advertisement Working hours tend to be dictated by workers' employment contracts and wider collective agreements, which specify a certain number of contracted hours per week. But generally, these hours can be extended in agreement with the employer, as long as they stay within the bounds of German law. If the law does change, the incoming government says they want to consult with employees and employers first. They suggest this will help them amend the law in a socially responsible way.

German pensions set to increase by 3.74 percent
German pensions set to increase by 3.74 percent

Local Germany

time06-03-2025

  • Local Germany

German pensions set to increase by 3.74 percent

According to Social Affairs Minister Hubertus Heil, statutory pensions are to increase by 3.74 percent on July 1st. For a 'standard pension', this will result in an increase of €66.15 per month from July, based on average earnings and 45 years of contributions. "The favourable wage development will once again lead to a pension adjustment that will strengthen the purchasing power of pensioners," Heil said in Berlin. "Stable pensions are not a luxury, but a question of fairness for people who have worked hard all their lives." Under German law, pensions generally follow the development of employees' wages and salaries in the previous year. For the time being, a minimum pension level of 48 percent of average wages in Germany is in place. This has been fixed until July 1st, 2025 as a short-term safety net, Heil said. When the new pensions level enters into force on July 1st, 2025, it will be high enough to hit the minimum of 48 percent, he added. "Last year, the labour market remained stable despite all the crises and there were decent wage settlements," the SPD minister told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. "Pensioners have earned this." Hubertus Heil (SPD), Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, is coming to exploratory talks between the CDU/CSU and SPD after the general election. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Kay Nietfeld Currently, the average salary in Germany is around €3,260, putting the 48-percent standard pension rate at €1,565 after social contributions. However, much like the promised €66.15 figure, this is based on standard contributions on the average German salary over 45 years, meaning the actual amount received can be much lower. Coalition debates Pensions are likely to be significant topic in the ongoing coalition talks between the centre-right CDU/CSU alliance and the centre-right SPD. Following the CDU and CSU's victory in th February 23rd federal elections, the two parties are aiming to form a 'Grand Coalition' government by Easter. However, tensions could arise in the area of social policy. With a wave of workers from the Baby Boomer generation entering retirement in the coming years, the pension fund is increasingly seeing its reserves run dry. Heil has repeatedly set his sights on an influx of foreign skilled workers to rebalance the ratio of people paying into the pension pot versus those taking out. In addition, the SPD wants to maintain the minimum 48-percent pension level and has rejected any increase in the pension age. This policy could result in an increase in the pension contributions paid by workers in Germany, which are currently set at 18.6 percent of income. If so, the party will be headed for a collision course with the CDU and CSU, who made a promise to cut social contributions in their election manifesto. Recently, social contributions in Germany have soared to around 42 percent of income, split evenly between workers and employers. The conservatives want to reduce this to at least 40 percent or below.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store