Christine Stalsonburg

FIRST TIME HOME BUYERS

Free Seminar

Bayshore Resort, Traverse City

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Experts will be available to answer all of your questions regarding the First-time Home Buyer Credit.

This new $8,000 credit is part of the American Recover and Reinvestment Act of 2009

The tax credit represents 10 percent of the purchase price of a home up to a maximum of $8,000

For the purpose of this credit, a first time homeowner is defined as one who has not owned a home for the 36 months ending on the date of purchase.

COME LEARN MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF HOME OWNERSHIP AND VIEW SOME OF THE INVENTORY THAT IS CURRENTLY AVAILABLE IN GRAND TRAVERSE COUNTY.

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St. Traverse City, MI

Michigan State Transfer Tax Exemption

In 1993, the State of Michigan implemented the state real estate transfer tax. When a home is sold in Michigan, there is a transfer tax that must be paid by the seller. This tax is based on the sale price of the home and is equivalent to $7.50 per $1,000 or the sales price on all home sales (unless the transaction is exempted under the statute).

There is a portion of this statue that can potential help some sellers. It has been on the books for years but is only coming to light due to our recent decline of values. If the current owner sells their property and the current assessed value is less then when they purchased the property, they do not have to pay the State Transfer Tax.

This could affect owners that have purchased a property in the top of the market and are now forced to sell at a loss. Since the tax is calculated on the "Sales Price", some due diligence must be done to find out if your seller qualifies for this exemption. This is not the duty of the title company, it is your accountability duty to your client to research this information and find out if they are eligible for the exemption. This could potentially save your client thousands of dollars depending on the price of the home.

This exemption only applies to the STATE tansfer tax. There are NO exceptions to the COUNTY transfer tax.

Christie Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St. Traverse City, MI 49686

Phoenix Real Estate Statistics: Pending sales explode, lower priced housing scarce

by Jay Thompson on Wed. April 29, 2009, 3:18 pm · 17 comments

in Phoenix Real Estate

The S&P/Case-Shiller home price index came out yesterday, and Phoenix has the dubious distinction of leading the 20 city index in price decline.

I won't wax poetic about prices in this post. Suffice it to say that home prices do follow the basic economic law of supply and demand. Too many homes for sale, and prices decline. Not enough homes for sale, and prices increase (basically).

No one wants to buy a home and have it decline in value. But despite some proclamations and the common belief of apparently many people, home prices do not always increase.

Yeah, the Phoenix real estate market has been in the toilet for quite some time now. One thing often left out of conversations, particularly in the mainstream media, is that Phoenix is coming off a run up of historic proportions. It was insane here back in 2005/2006. Appreciation rates were averaging 50% per year - a wholly unsustainable rate as I discussed here way back in November 2005.

So, if supply and demand is a leading factor in home prices, what's happening right now in the Phoenix real estate market?

Here is a chart showing pending sales^[1] over the last 120 days in select Phoenix East Valley cities. Note the sharp increase in pending home sales across the board - which holds true in virtually every Phoenix area location.

Here is a chart showing homes sold in the same cities for the last 120 days:

And here is a chart showing the supply of listed homes (in months):

Inventory is declining. Most (but certainly not all) pending sales eventually close, so the skyrocketing pendings mean inventory should continue to drop. This bodes well for stabilizing pricing.

One of the problems with things like the Case-Shiller index, and even with charts like I've posted above is they tend to lump a ton of data together. Real estate is local, often down to the neighborhood, and different "sub-markets" in an area the size of the Phoenix metro area can behave very differently.

For a perfect example, let's take a look at the current listing inventory broken down by price range:

So what is this chart telling us?

Look at the bar for homes in the $1.5 - $2M range. See how it's poking way off to the right? That's telling you that there is a 77 month supply of homes in that price range that are currently on the market. In other words, if no new homes in that price range are listed, at the current rate of sales it would take 77 months to sell all the existing listings. That's 6.4 years for those that don't want to do the math.

Conversely, look at the homes in the sub-$200K range. There is less than a six month supply of those homes on the market (the green line represents the six month supply line).

Generally speaking, a six month supply of homes is considered a "neutral market", less than six months is a sellers market and more than six months is a buyers market.

So within the Greater Phoenix metro area, when it comes to price point, we've got market segments that favor buyers, or sellers, or are neutral.

Price point is but one factor. There are many others- age, style, location, ownership (bank owned, vs short sales vs individual owned) to name some. And these factors can all interact, making it complicated as all get out to figure out what's happening in the market.

REO's (Real Estate Owned - aka foreclosures aka Bank or Lender owned homes) are a hot topic. As Phoenix real estate has gone through the wringer, the REO market has changed significantly. Stop back by in the next day or two for a look at how that market segment is behaving. I'll drop one little teaser - there is currently only a 1.4 month supply of bank owned homes on the market.

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Charts from CromfordReport.com using data from public records and data licensed from the Arizona Multiple Listing Service (ARMLS). Cromford Associates LLC, ARMLS and yours truly, Jay Thompson, expressly disclaim and make no representations or warranties of any kind - express, implied or statutory - as to the accuracy of the data, nor its merchantability or fitness for any particular purpose.

In other less legal-like words, if you use this data to make personal, business or investment decisions and something blows up, it's not our fault and you can't sue us.

Footnotes:

•1. Pending home sale = a home that is under contract, but has not yet closed. In other words, it's in the process of transferring ownership

The March of Dimes Mission
To improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. We carry out this mission through research, community services, education and advocacy to save babies' lives.

This morning at 8:30 am over 450 registered walkers started their 5 mile "March For Babies". This annual event was held at the Grand Traverse Civic Center. There were many families in attendance that had heart warming stories of how March of Dimes helped them through the challenges of their pre-mature babies early days of live. There were also families in attendance that were walking in memory of their child who did not survive their pre-mature challenges despite the wonderful support provided by March of Dimes.

This event is the largest find raising event that the local March of Dimes Chapter does annually. Many of us do not know the challenges faced during a challenging pregnancy or in the first few critical hours, days and months of a pre-mature baby. Some of these babies weigh less than a pound at birth and go home months later a very healthy baby.

1 in 8 babies are born too soon. Premature birth can happen without warning and for no known reason. Much needed research is done through donations received by the March of Dimes in hopes that someday, we will have better answers to the reasons that some babies are born premature.

If you would like to donate to this wonderful cause, you can visit the web site below to make a donation to a chapter in your area.

https://www.marchofdimes.com/michigan/38394.asp

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

"A Tradition Of Sound Advice"

231-944-0854

www.Stalsonburg.com

http://www.stalsonburg.com

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

402 E. Front St. Traverse City, MI 49684

LAKE ANN 527 Acres

Lake Ann is located in Benzie County in the village of Lake Ann. Access to the lake is off of County Road 610. This beautiful lake offers Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, Perch, Bluegill, Pumpkinseed, Cisco, Rock Bass, Bullhead, SMelt and Sucker. Bass fishing is great here. Largemouths are dominant over smallmouth and average 14 to 16 inches. Smallmouth run 12 to 14 inches. Northern Pike fishing is also good with 20 to 22 inch fish. Perch, Bluegills, Pumpkinseeds and Rock Bass average 6 to 8 inches. Fishing is good all over the lake but you may begin in the shallows near the outlet to Platte River.