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

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 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.