miOaklandCounty.com

Our firm, Snyder, Kinney, Bennett & Keating, is an official sponsor of the Birmingham Farmers’ Market. Dmitry and I are kicking off this sponsorship at the first Market of the 2005 season. Please stop by on Sunday, July 3 between 9 and 2 to say “hello”. We will have balloons and a smile for those […]

Birmingham homes on the market:
For the 394 listings:
Avg List Price $941,998.00
The Median Price $4,328,450.00
The Highest Price $8,499,000.00
The Lowest Price $157,900.00
The Average Market Time 75
Last month at this time there were 344 homes on the market, compared to 394 today.
Homes pending since January 1, 2005
For the 57 listings:
Avg List Price $610,466.00
The Median Price $1,329,950.00
The Highest Price […]

Lowes recently began a program that allows us to offer our clients a 10% off coupon to their store. This should come in handy if you are getting your home ready to go on the market, or taking on a few projects after moving in.
We are pleased to be able to pass this savings along […]

This week we attended a training seminar conducted by Realtor.com. As the largest real estate site in the world they have over 6 million consumers visiting them every month. Impressive! Last year we took our marketing efforts for our sellers to a higher level by “enhancing” our listings. Essentially, we offer more pictures and better […]

We’ve just created new market condition reports for Realtor.com. One of the surprising trends that we have witnessed over the last month or so is renewed activity in the rental home market. Chrysler is bringing 60-80 employees over the next month, and is putting them in rental properties. Some sellers who haven’t found the right […]

From Business Week:
“Thirty-one percent of new single-family mortgages were interest only last year, up from just 1.5% in 2001. With interest-only mortgages, buyers’ monthly payments are lower for a time, but they don’t build equity in their home.”
From Maureen:
That is not exactly correct. Homeowners with interest-only mortgages can build equity if the home appreciates in […]

From the LA Times:
“Thanks to the boom in housing prices, 437,000 Californians are trying to make a living selling real estate. Unfortunately, there are only 680,000 home sales in the state each year.”
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Written by Maureen Francis
Visit WebsiteSearch for homes in Oakland County_____________________________________________________________

In Michigan, as across the nation, appraisal fraud has recently become the object of much discussion, as REALTORS®, lenders, and state officials attempt to combat a growing menace in the real estate industry that threatens the financial security of homeowners and creates artificial market values for properties.
In an effort to thwart this type of fraud […]

Other real estate blogs:
http://www.twincitiesrealestateblog.com/
John Mudd’s Tampa Bay blog was voted Best Real Estate Blog last year, is quite local and has much to do about properties:http://insiderealestatejournal.blogspot.com/
The Inman Blog is the Big Daddy of real estate blogs, very informal andchatty and fun:http://www.inman.com/blogger/bradinman.aspx
The Property Grunt from NYC is a little offbeat, but lots of fun…I lovehis open […]