The Twin Cities housing market continued to cool down last month, with closed sales dipping 1.4 percent from August of last year and the number of homes for sale decreasing 16.7 percent to 12,602, according to data released Monday by area Realtors associations.
The median sales price rose 6.8 percent from last year to $252,000 — a new monthly record for August. Home prices have now risen for the last 66 consecutive months or 5.5 years.
“The shortage of homes for sale is still driving this market,” said Cotty Lowry, president, Minneapolis Area Association of Realtors. “It’s been the story for years, and it continues to influence prices, sales, market times and other indicators.
The number of sellers listing homes increased slightly inaugust, but that wasn’t enough to counteract the inventory drop. New listings increased 0.7 percent from last year to 7,264.
“The Twin Cities did see a slight increase in new home permits in August following a slight dip in July,” said Tina Angell, St. Paul Area Association of Realtors president.
MINNESOTA CORN, SOY HARVEST ON PACE
Warm conditions this past week helped Minnesota’s corn and soybean crops to mature and fueled a rapid harvest pace for dry beans.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture says in its weekly crops progress and condition report for Minnesota that the state’s corn is still maturing about 10 days behind the average pace, but 81 percent of the crop is in good to excellent condition.
Some soybean harvesting is already taking place in northern Minnesota. The crop condition is rated 72 percent good to excellent.
Nearly a third of the state’s dry edible bean crop was harvested last week, thanks to 5.7 days suitable for fieldwork, bringing the total harvest to 44 percent.
Eight percent of the sugar beet crop has been lifted, with condition rated 89 percent good to excellent.
NORTHRUP BUYING ORBITAL ATK
Defense giant Northrop Grumman Corp. is acquiring aerospace and defense firm Orbital ATK Inc. for about $7.8 billion in cash, a deal that would boost Northrop’s presence in the space and missile businesses.
Orbital shareholders are to receive $134.50 per share in cash, a 22.2 percent premium over Friday’s closing price. Northrop is to assume $1.4 billion in net debt.
Orbital, based in Dulles, Va., makes rocket motors that power missiles and designs and produces target launch vehicles that are used to test missile defense systems.
The company also makes the interceptor boosters for the U.S. Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, the nation’s primary protection against a missile strike.
Orbital ATK formed out of the 2014 merger of ATK Orbital Sciences. ATK used to be based in Eden Prairie; it moved its headquarters to Virginia in 2011.
GM WORKERS ON STRIKE IN ONTARIO
About 2,500 workers at a Canadian General Motors plant that makes the Chevrolet Equinox SUV are on strike in a dispute over job security.
Members of Unifor Local 88 in Ingersoll, Ontario, west of Toronto, stopped working when their contract expired at 10:59 p.m. Sunday.
The strike couldn’t come at worse time for GM. A new version of the Equinox compact SUV just started to hit dealerships during the summer, attracting buyers in the hottest part of the U.S. auto market.
The union says GM won’t designate the factory as lead producer of the Equinox. GM moved production of the GMC Terrain, which is similar to the Equinox, to Mexico in July, and 600 workers were laid off. The Equinox also is made in Mexico and workers fear more jobs could go south.
GM says in a statement that it encourages the union to resume negotiations. The company says both sides made positive progress during the past several weeks.
ROKU PLANS $252M IPO
Roku Inc., the leading maker of devices for streaming internet video on televisions, hopes to raise up to $252 million with an initial public stock offering.
The Los Gatos, Calif., company’s IPO registration filing Monday came the day after the growing popularity of streaming video platforms such as Netflix was evident at the Emmy Awards, where series exclusive to the platforms captured numerous awards.
In its filing, Roku said it planned to offer about 18 million Class A shares for $12 to $14 each. The stock would have inferior voting rights compared with the stock currently held by Roku’s insiders.
COWBOYS MOST VALUABLE SPORTS FRANCHISE
The Dallas Cowboys not only are the NFL’s most valuable franchise for the 11th straight year, they are the top-valued team in the world.
According to Forbes magazine, their worth increased 14 percent in the last year, reaching $4.8 billion. That’s more than $1 billion ahead of the Patriots ($3.7 billion).
Rounding out the NFL’s top five are the Giants ($3.3 billion), Redskins ($3.1 billion) and 49ers ($3.05 billion).
