Connor Walsh is like a lot of really frustrated homebuyers these days with one notable exception: His budget is a lot bigger than most.
He's young. He has a growing family. And he was able to sell a house for a lot more than he paid for it, enabling him to trade up to a more expensive one. Even though he's able to spend more than $1 million, he's been outbid on nearly a half-dozen houses, leaving him yearning for a bigger and more space.
"I sold my house and made a lot of money on it, so it's such a stupid thing to even whine about," he said. "These are first-world problems, but it's crazy."
For years before the pandemic, the most expensive houses in the Twin Cities were the slowest to find a buyer even as sales in every other price range soared.
Less-expensive houses still sell faster today. But seven-figure houses that often took a year to sell are now finding buyers in an average of just 83 days, turning the region's high end into a seller's market for the first time in decades.
During February alone, buyers signed 1,429 purchase agreements for houses priced at more than $1 million, according to the Minneapolis Area Realtors. That was 32% more than the previous year and the biggest increase for any price category during that month.
"My clients know once something hits, we must be there within a day and ready to fight for it," said Sue Hewitson, a Twin Cities real estate agent who is working with several upper-bracket buyers who have been outbid.
At the end of January, she listed a timber-framed house with 75 feet of Lake Minnetonka shoreline for $1.77 million. After nearly 20 showings and an open house packed with more than 30 snoopers, the house sold for $2.1 million.