Bright Spot’s in Michigan’s Real Estate Market

This is a recent article in the Detroit News about the MIchigan Housing market.  Amazing.

Paul Mychalowych
Keller Williams Realty

The Detroit Free Press from Michigan. “Two reports released Thursday indicate bright spots in Michigan’s real estate market, but industry experts say we’ve got a way to go before things are normal. Sales continued to boom in foreclosure-laden Detroit, which saw a 42.2% jump in sales to 1,126 properties from 792 in October 2007.”

“Richard Dugas, CEO of Pulte Homes Inc. of Bloomfield Hills, cautioned against too much optimism. ‘The sales velocity is up, but a huge percentage of the resale number is foreclosed sales,’ Dugas said. ‘It is optimistic to say a sales jump so driven by foreclosures is a signal of the bottom. A huge amount of resale inventory that is not foreclosures is not selling.’”

“Another thing that mars the positive home sales picture is that prices are still on a downward spiral, said Drew Sygit, president of the Lending Edge at Allied Home Mortgage Capital Corp. in Rochester Hills. In October, the median price of homes sold was $70,000, a 40% drop from the $117,000 median sales price in October 2007, according to Realcomp data.”

“‘Prices are still falling. That’s not a stable market,’ Sygit said.”

From WLNS TV 6 in Michigan. “Would a 90 day ban on foreclosures really help the housing market? Home after home, facing foreclosure or already there. Adeline Metzler, Center for Financial Health: ‘99% of these people are serious hardworking people, they do not want to lose their homes.’”

“But Metzler says the plan does raise one red flag, it’d be too hard to enforce. ‘How do you tell all those lenders there’s a moratorium, because many of those loans were made here in the state of Michigan, but we’re dealing with servicers in California and Texas,’ Metzler said.”

“So she says, while it may be a bandaid for the struggling market, it won’t be the medicine that heals the wounds.”