Market Updates

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 he was [...]

{ 0 comments }

Consumers might not notice this readily, but a different kind of correction is taking place in the Southeast Michigan real estate market: agents are quitting the business. The exodus in the mortgage industry began some time ago, maybe more than a year. With refi business falling off and purchases at a lower rate, mortgage pros [...]

{ 13 comments }

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 [...]

{ 0 comments }

Work has gotten in the way of me updating this blog recently. We have been selling houses. I should yell that because there seems to be a rumor circling about in metro Detroit that homes are not selling. So let me repeat: Dmitry and Maureen are selling houses. In the last few weeks we have [...]

{ 8 comments }

Metro Detroit’s most expensive home on the market, 21000 Turnberry in Novi, is under contract. We’ve talked before about the return of the luxury home buyers in Metro Detroit, and this sale confirms our observations. Turnberry went under contract after 598 days on the market and has not yet closed. The list price for the [...]

{ 3 comments }

Last night I was watching the Birmingham City Commission meeting on Comcast and one of the commissioners (it might even have been the mayor) misquoted a statistic that was wrong in the first place. He stated that “10% of Birmingham homes are in forclosure.” He was quickly corrected, or quickly corrected himself, and changed his [...]

{ 7 comments }

I have been working on a market update, but then the following article landed in my mail box this morning. To strengthen their statistics I will add that my own office just had its best month in 2.5 years. Our showings are up substantially too. The following is taken directly from MCAR Reports, a publication [...]

{ 0 comments }

We have seen some ‘super-sized’ transactions lately. A flurry of high end homes have sold in the last few weeks, with list prices from $2,000,000 to $5,000,000. Yes, some of these homes have been on the market a long time. But something has happened that indicates, at least to me, that the wealthiest buyers are [...]

{ 1 comment }

OK, no ‘rah rah rah’, just a few impressions of what I have been seeing out there in the local market in the last two weeks or so. Let’s just call this another one of my anecdotal market reports. I tried to set up 3 showings for one couple. Two of the houses were under [...]

{ 1 comment }

There are currently 637 single family homes on the market in Troy. For the 637 listings: Average List Price $324,171.00 Median List Price $279,900.00 Highest List Price $1,500,000.00 Lowest List Price $92,500.00 Average Market Time 127 Since January 1, of 2007, 212 homes have gone pending or sold. The average total days on market was [...]

{ 2 comments }

Ken Mascia from Oxford Financial is back today with some wisdom about the sub prime implosion and it’s impact on our Southeast Michigan real estate market. One topic has gotten a lot of press lately and it’s how everybody is in foreclosure. I have heard some of the craziest statements made as if they were [...]

{ 5 comments }