Brainerd Area Realtor Gives Update on Local Housing Market

The housing market is always changing. In the past couple of years, it has been volatile because of inflation, which caused prices to rise at a rapid rate and interest rates go 4-5% higher. But now, everything seems to be stabilizing. And this year, warmer weather is helping the market’s health.

To discuss this, we sat down with Tim Nelson, who has been involved with real estate in the Brainerd Lakes Area for more than a decade.

“We have a strong market today,” said Nelson, a broker and owner of Positive Realty. “Prices are holding, this year specifically with the weather being nice, it’s helped. It’s given us an extra couple few weeks of good market.”

Despite the market holding currently, one problem is inventory. And with the lower interest rates just a few years ago, some homeowners are reluctant to sell and even looking at different avenues as they see their needs for larger homes arise.

“The challenge with buying and selling right now is so many people that are locked into these 3, 2% interest rates over the past couple of years,” explained Nelson. “You can’t lose it, yeah. So how do you go justify trading in a 3% for 7? It’s not that the people don’t necessarily want to, but maybe we take that extra cash and we go remodel our house to make it fit our needs.”

While the market being perceived as slow may be concerning, Nelson believes it’s a positive given previous conditions.

“It’s slowing it down from an unhealthy market that we were in before. It was so fast and furious and pricing was increasing so quickly that it’s not necessarily a bad thing to slow it all down,” said Nelson.

With winter on our doorstep, you may see the housing market cool down with the temperatures, but rest assured knowing it will pick up come springtime.

In October, the median listing price in the Brainerd Lakes Area was $332,000, turning up 10.7% from last year.