Kris Wales - Macomb County MI real estate blog & homes for sale search site

Home sales in Macomb County MI saw some dramatic changes in June compared to data available for June of last year (2008).

One of the most dramatic, in my opinion, was the average total days on the market being reduced by 88 days. That is almost a full 3 months less time on the market to sell your home than it was a year ago.

Another nice change from a year ago at this time is the number of homes being put on the market for sale. That number also was reduced by 466 residential homes. ( Home owners should start seeing some improvement in the number of showings on their homes with a reduced inventory supply.)

Now for the not so good news - sold home prices are still falling. First time home buyers and investors alike are taking advantage of the bank owned homes on the market and buying them at a hurried pace.

The average "sold" price for June 2009 was $88,106 compared to $123,108 for June of last year, however it appears that most of that huge reduction is because of the amount of homes that sold last month in the under $50,000 price range.

Out of the 774 homes sold in Macomb County last month a very large number of those homes were sold for under $50,000:

With 327 homes selling for under $50,000 last month it is no suprise that the average sales price for all of the homes would fall considerably. The reduced amount of homes entering our Macomb County MI real estate market should help stabilize the sales prices in the coming months. I will let you know as soon as I see this happening.

If you would like more information regarding home sales prices in your specific area of Macomb County please don't hesitate to contact me.

No pressure - just information and conversation.

Kris Wales- A partner for your real estate needs in Macomb County MI

Search homes for sale in Macomb County MI Ask Kris about your homes value


**All data provided is courtesy of Mirealsource™ and its participating brokers
and real estate agents. It is deemed to be reliable, but not guaranteed**

It was quite a headline type news weekend in the Metro Detroit area, and one would think with all of the economic problems that my hometown area is facing that I would be a bit more concerned this morning with hard core issues facing people in my area.

My priorities are screwed up today. (I'm human, I'm sure you've all experienced this also at one time or another.)

Instead of delving deeper into the bad asset sale of GM and the bankruptcy courts approval of those assets, or worrying about the police chief of Detroit being fired without a reason for his sacking being disclosed I am more upset and dumbfounded by this:

Brandon Inge didn't make the All Star team.

It's a travesty. An injustice. An outrage! This man is a human highlight film at third base.

We can make this right.

There are 5 ball players that are on the final ballot. If you go to MLB.com you can vote for Brandon to make the trip to St. Louis. I've already voted, many many times. (Yes, you can vote more than once!)

Hopefully since I've gotten this out of my system, for this morning at least, I'll be able to get back to work on concentrate on other things except the injustice of the All Star voting system!

Congratulations to Justin Verlander, Edwin Jackson and Curtis Granderson who have been chosen to represent the Detroit Tigers at this great American classic!

It's the beginning of May and part of what we do as real estate professionals is to keep track of our local markets and the changes taking place in them. I knew the volume of sales of homes in Macomb County MI had picked up since the spring warmth took place but I was more than a bit shocked when I looked back at what took place in April of last year (2008) in comparison to now.

I found much of what I expected to find when I looked at the number of homes sold in April of 2009 home in Macomb County MI compared to April of 2008:

636 single family residential homes sold during the past month compared with 570 homes sold in April of 2008. That's a nice healthy increase of around 11% in Macomb County as a whole.

What I didn't expect to find was this:

In April of last year 167 homes sold for $80,000 or less.

This past April (2009) 348 homes sold for $80,000 or less.

We keep hearing the phrase "Foreclosures are King" in Macomb County. The data that I saw this morning reinforced that in my mind. Pricing is truly the key to selling your home in the real estate market that we are currently experiencing. Even those homes that were not distressed sales (foreclosures and short sales) are being priced as if they were in order to compete with the other homes and be successful in obtaining the sale of the home.

Take a peek at the graph below to see the stunning difference in the low home sale prices this April compared to April of last year.

**All data on homes sold courtesy of Mirealsource™ and its participating real estate brokers and agents and is deemed to be reliable but not guaranteed**

Kris Wales - Macomb County MI real estate - A partner for your real estate needs

Mike Mitchell and I attended a workshop Monday afternoon for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program in Macomb County MI. 

The purpose of this meeting was to inform and familiarize real estate agents in Macomb County with the program that officials hope will help to stabilize areas of the county that have been hit with foreclosures and declining values because of the vacant bank owned homes.

Some key points about the Neighborhood Stabilization program:

• There are income limits.  They are quite generous, but please call me or email me and I'll be happy to go over the limits with you.  (They are based upon family size.)
  
  
• Home buyers can receive 49% of their hard costs to purchase a home in Macomb County areas as an interest free 2nd mortgage on the home.  Hard costs would be the purchase price of the home as well as any repairs that need to be done to a home.   The nicest part?  If you stay in the home for 15 years this interest free loan does not have to be repaid.  At all.  It's a gift!
  
  
• The home you choose must be able to be purchased from the bank owner at 15% less than appraised value. If it appraises for less than that, the bank owner must be open and willing to lower the price of the home to meet the 15% less than value guidelines.

I'll be posting more about this program and how it can help home buyers in Macomb County in the coming months.  If you'd like an informational brochure mailed to you please don't hesitate to contact me either via phone or email.  I'd be happy to send it to you.    

Another note:  The grant is not endless.  Macomb County has been awarded approximately 20 million dollars.  When it's gone it's gone.  We have no idea of how long this program will last but I have a feeling that once word gets out to prospective buyers that there will be a run of applications for the program.

Ohhh!  I forgot to mention that you can recieve the $8000 first time home buyers tax credit and use this grant program to purchase a home.   Using one does not disqualify you from taking advantage of the other!

~Kris Wales~  A partner for your real estate needs in Macomb County MI  -(586) 536-5453

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Blog articles for first time home buyers in Macomb County MI

The single family home sales in January in Macomb County MI  were much as I expected with the exception of the very large price drop in sales price.

Most of  this price drop I can attribute to 2 large areas of our market:   The sale of foreclosures on the market and the increasing rate of home owners who have been unable to sell and have decided to rent their homes.

Once again I'm going to harp on the inaccuracy of data if the rental information is not stripped out of the standardized reports. Ask your agent, no, insist that your agent strip the rental "sales" prices out of your market analysis for your neighborhood.

Below is a chart that gives me the standard report from Mirealscource™ for residential home sales in Macomb County MI that includes the rental information that was submitted by participating real estate agents and their brokers.

If I took those numbers above at face value I would be including 66 homes that were rented in both the total numbers of homes that were "sold" and also the average sales price for Macomb County.  

Compare the chart above with the next one that I have stripped of the rentals (homes leased) information.

As you can see by the comparison above if your real estate agent used standard data to compile a market analysis for your neighborhood the total sales prices and competing homes would be off by a large margin if the rental data is not taken out of the report.

Insist that you real estate agent remove the rental numbers and data from any report that they give to you.  

Kris Wales -  A partner for your real estate needs in Macomb County MI

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