Market Updates

In a historic move yesterday, Treasury Secretary Carlson announced the government takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The two financial giants have been struggling over the past year due to an unprecedented increase in foreclosures which relate to falling home values and the subprime loan meltdown. If the two were allowed to fail the [...]

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A recent client wanted a completed NEW home in Birmingham.  With a budget of $2,000,000, one would have thought we would have had plenty to chose from.  We did not. Spec building in Birmingham, and throughout Oakland County, has almost come to a stop.  We are still seeing a few spec homes going up around [...]

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The last few months have been whirlwind for Dmitry and me.  In spite of all that you hear about the crummy housing market, we, through hard work, good fortune and a bit of creative thinking, find ourselves square in the middle of our best year in real estate-EVER.  Yes, you read that right.  Our best [...]

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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 . Yesterday I tried to show 4 Birmingham [...]

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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 [...]

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This just in from MCAR, our board of Realtors. Sales figures for March cooled off a little from the previous two months. In February, for example, sales in Oakland County were up seven percent year-to-year. For March, sales dipped four percent. One likely culprit: the fourth snowiest March since 1880. And home buyers that may [...]

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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 [...]

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Don’t take my word for it, take the Free Press‘s. Sales of homes and condos in metro Detroit rose 12.8% in February compared with a year ago, according to figures released Tuesday by Realcomp. There were 3,591 home and condo sales in the metro area in February compared with 3,184 in the same month in [...]

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When I first landed in the Former Soviet Union in 1992, the average wage was probably about $20 a month and investment was a new concept. Early “business men” were thought of as thugs, and the notion of capitalism was still very foreign. In fact, as a Peace Corps Business Advisor, I was there to [...]

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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 [...]

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Housing market figures for Oakland County in September reflect a decrease in sales activity compared to September 2006: sales and sales volume were down eight percent and 18 percent, respectively. Among the municipalities experiencing positive sales activity in the year-to-year comparison (with a minimum of 15 sales) were: Commerce Township, which hit the trifecta: up [...]

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