Nick Exarhos

This might be the best time in years to buy a home in Michigan. Prices are affordable. Sellers are willing to compromise. And inventory levels are high. If you've been debating whether it's time to invest in a Michigan home, now might be the perfect time to act.

Congress recently passed an extension to the first-time homebuyers tax credit of $8,000, and added a move-up buyers tax credit, which applies to every other homebuyer, of $6,500, see the NAR web site for more details at this link

http://www.realtor.org/home_buyers_and_sellers/2009_first_time_home_buyer_tax_credit .

Michigan has been hit harder by the national recession than most states. Unemployment is high here, and wages have been falling. Because of this, housing prices in the state have remained at affordable levels.

According to data from the Michigan Association of Realtors, the median sales price of the average house in Michigan stood at $108,692 in September of last year. That's down 8.43 percent from the same month one year earlier. At the same time, a growing number of homeowners are trying to sell their homes, and they're willing to compromise to do it.

A seller here might be willing to knock $5,000, $10,000 or even $15,000 off the asking price of their home if it means finally selling it. Many sellers are also willing to cover the costs of needed repairs or have the work done themselves before closing. And if you need the real estate transaction to close by a certain date, you can usually get the sellers to agree to that, too. The reason for all this is simple: Michigan is in the midst of a buyer's market. Buyers, then, are calling the shots when it comes to housing transactions.

Many sellers are willing to go to great lengths to sell their homes in Michigan because they are actually in danger of losing them to foreclosure. According to RealtyTrac, an online provider of real estate information, Michigan ranks fourth in the nation in foreclosure activity. According to the company, 16,468 households in Michigan received a foreclosure filing in the third quarter of this year, 9,792 of them in the Detroit area alone.

Michigan homeowners who are struggling to make their mortgage payments are willing to negotiate with buyers if it means moving their homes before they lose them to foreclosure.

Of course, just because Michigan is experiencing a buyer's market, that doesn't mean that you'll be able to steal a house. You'll still have to negotiate in good faith, and you'll still have to pay at least a reasonable price. But Michigan's housing statistics don't lie: Homes here are more affordable than they've been in a decade. And if you're a savvy buyer, you'll be able to purchase more home for less money in the state.

Learn about the main cause of the sub prime debacle, the repeal of the Glass Stegal Act. Watch the upcoming politics as the congress attempts to re-enact the principles of Glass Stegal. Millions of dollars will change hands as the banking lobbists try and prevent the change back. They want to continue to gamble with our money.

RATES ~ Interest rates, too, moved little, though it is important to note that the week included the usual pendulum swing among investors from confidence in the recovery to worry. The 10-year Treasury note yield stood at 3.818% as the week began, but concerns inspired by the prior week's disappointing employment data (with the reported 85,000 jobs lost in December) weighed on investor confidence in the economy, and the 10-year T-note yield edged down to 3.722% by the end of Tuesday. At the same time, investors appeared to be moving their money from the stock market to both Treasury securities and corporate bonds, having seemingly lost a bit of their appetite for risk (briefly: for a day).

Absent from Washington and President Obama is a mention of a Federal Initiative to convert the federal vehicle fleet to natural gas. This would mandate that to start with all federal vehicles, ie. postal, ect. be converted to run on natural gas. Later the states could follow, and than the local municipalities. We have plenty of natural gas reserves, and we could kick our habit of foreign oil dependence. This would stimulate the economy, create a new industry and create jobs. This is a no brainer! Why the silence from Washington?