miOaklandCounty.com

Yes, that headline is correct. Sales are up over last year for the fourth month in a row, according to our MLS, Realcomp II. We’ve told you, we are seeing a lot of activity, and we are busier than ever. Spring has sprung! Here is Realcomp’s report
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Yesterday I tried to […]

In today’s Metro Detroit real estate market, there is almost no way a prospective buyer cannot run into a few short sale properties or foreclosures during a home search. Each is much different from a standard “retail” home purchase where you are working with Susie and Sam Seller, their agent and your agent.
In a […]

Dmitry and I have had our busiest Spring in real estate in years in 2008.  We are working with more clients than ever before.  Last week we had a couple of closings and we asked the other Realtors and mortgage brokers if they were seeing what we are seeing: a lot more buying activity in […]

Sure, the Southeast Michigan real estate market has hit a rough patch. There are lots of homes on the market longer than the owners want them to be. But right now, Dmitry and I barely have time to eat dinner together. We are both running in different directions taking care of clients’ needs.
In the last […]

Calling all home buyers, looky-loos, nosy neighbors and undecided: mark your calendars for Sunday April 27th.
Agents in four counties—Oakland, Macomb, Wayne and Livingston—are invited to hold open houses on Sunday, April 27. The open houses will be publicized in a special tabloid-sized section of both the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News the […]

Or, “how bad is the market?” Yep, we get asked that all the time.
First, let me say that we are busy. Our business has been very steady since we started selling homes in 2001. We’ve always looked at this as a business, not a hobby or something to fill our idol time now that […]

I doubt that there has EVER been a better time to make an investment in Michigan real estate. Opportunities abound, and smart investors will be rewarded.
Not long ago, I heard about an out of state “investor” who made his first real estate investment in Michigan. He was sold a high end home in […]

Last week the Detroit New’s new Real Estate reporter, Nathan Hurst, and I had a chance to talk on the phone. Nathan has been here a couple of months now, and is excited about his new position covering the Metro Detroit real estate beat. He comes here from Boston and Nathan admitted that […]

Metro Detroit ranks 3rd in terms of the nation’s most affordable housing markets, according to Forbes magazine.  They report these stats:
Median home price: $154,600
Median household income: $63,052
Recent affordable home sales: 87.4%
They explained that it would take just over two years of gross income to purchase a home in a market like Metro Detroit, though many […]

It’s not often that I comment on anything being done in Washington on this blog. I am not apolitical, but I keep this place as local as I can, and usually Washington isn’t doing too much that I want to talk about. Take that comment as you like.
When the news popped up in my […]

Could there be a silver lining to the increasing number of foreclosures in Michigan? Maybe. Maybe not.
The State of Michigan just changed the laws allowing foreclosures to be taken into consideration in property tax assessments. Previously the depressed sales were disallowed as aberrations. In Oakland County areas particularly hard […]

Carol Marshall recently wrote in the Oakland Business Review about the changing skyline of Royal Oak:
Condo sales are stabilizing and improving slightly in Royal Oak compared to last year, according to Farmington Hills-based Realcomp II.
By the end of June, 63 condo units in the city had sold, compared to 56 a year ago. Home […]