While you’re eating better and exercising more, also resolve to better understand the inner workings of your housing market. Data does not have to be daunting. Just from the existing trends, it’s safe to expect to see more homes selling in less time for closer to list price. It also looks like the single-family detached segment may recover faster than the condo-townhouse attached segment. It would be wise to watch foreclosure activity to see whether there will be fewer low-priced sales in 2013. Many patterns emerge if you look in the right places.

In the Twin Cities region, for the week ending December 22:

• New Listings increased 9.5% to 657
• Pending Sales increased 41.7% to 815
• Inventory decreased 29.2% to 13,315

For the month of November:

• Median Sales Price increased 16.4% to $172,287
• Days on Market decreased 26.5% to 103
• Percent of Original List Price Received increased 3.6% to 94.2%
• Months Supply of Inventory decreased 38.8% to 3.5

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