The Federal Reserve recently announced that interest rates will remain steady and that further rate hikes are not planned for 2019. Given that the federal funds rate has increased nine times over the past three years, this is welcome news for consumers carrying high credit card balances. The overall economy, inflation and Fed actions also have an effect on mortgage rates, so it is generally good news when rate hikes are paused, especially when total sales are dropping in many parts of the nation.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending March 16:

• New Listings decreased 12.2% to 1,374
• Pending Sales decreased 20.8% to 976
• Inventory decreased 5.8% to 8,273

For the month of February:

• Median Sales Price increased 6.2% to $265,500
• Days on Market remained flat at 69
• Percent of Original List Price Received decreased 0.3% to 97.7%
• Months Supply of Homes For Sale remained flat at 1.7

All comparisons are to 2018

Click here for the full Weekly Market Activity Report. From The Skinny Blog.