Headlines say the market will get worse. Local thinking seems to feel differently!

The other day I was asked to address the Birmingham-Bloomfield Chamber of Commerce Economic Forecast Luncheon at the Townsend Hotel along with two other major brokers. It was interesting to see how all three brokers had a similar mind set. The current market has come close or may have reached the bottom with regards to selling prices. It will take a while to absorb the current inventory but that is exactly what is happening and that is the the first step towards a better market.

Other areas of the country may experience some additional decline in home values but that is due the massive price run ups they experienced. Here in Michigan we didn’t have the big increases. Therefore, we are ready for the start of a better marketplace. With predictions of higher interest rates headed our way over the next year, this is considered the right time to buy. A year from now a lot of people will be looking back wishing they had have acted.

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Case-Shiller index, Tuesday posted a 12.7% decline for February, which is inaccurate.

The Chief Economist for the National Association of Realtors, Lawrence Yun said."If there are a lot more homes sold on the low end and fewer on the high end, the median price is bound to drop dramatically,"  "In normal times, a median price would reflect typical homeowner equity changes, but these are not normal times. The jumbo mortgage market is frozen and the buying activity is more concentrated in lower-value homes."

This type of reporting gives off a skewed picture of how well the overall market is performing. The media steps in a publishes the headline and the readers then take it as fact that we are worse off than is truly the case. They then act in a manner that causes the economy to perform poorer than it should. People should analyze the headline and take them for what they generally are, an opportunity to sell more media space.

The Case-Shiller Home Price Index reports on 20 Metro areas of which 17 showed a decline. The National Association of Realtors reports on 330 Metro areas of which 78% showed price increases. 

Call us for a better understanding of what all this means to you in the Birmingham Bloomfield Hills area and the opportunities that are available in our local maketplace. 

Banner Headline says New Home Sales Drop by Largest Amount since 1970 

New single-family U.S. home sales fell by an unexpectedly steep 8.5 percent in March and the median sales prices compared to a year ago dropped by the largest amount since 1970, a government report released this week showed. The pace of sales slowed to an annual rate of 526,000 last month, the weakest rate since October 1991, the Commerce Department said.

This may sound bad but it truly is not what it appears. If you look at the fact that builders have been building fewer new homes for some time it should not come as a suprise that they are selling fewer. You can’t sell something that doesn’t exist!

Dan Green from The Mortgage Reports wrote a much more detailed article which is available on his website.

Should you buy a home now in Birmingham - Bloomfield Hills Michigan or wait for prices to go down more?

There has been tons of negative press lately saying that the real estate market is the worst it has been since the Great Depression. They say in cities like Miami prices have fallen almost 16%.

Did they forget to tell you that before they fell 16% that they went up 180.9%?

Let’s take a look at some of the non front page comments from the same papers.

Just in case we didn’t get the message across well enough……….

Now let me share another short thought for your consideration….

If during the next year interest rates raise by no more than 1 percent the new home you want to buy will cost you more each month than it would now unless the purchase price drops another 18%. PMI just published its opinion on that subject and they said homes in Michigan are currently selling at fair market value. 

Of course that begs the question, are interest rates going to go up in the next year with the Fed lowering rates? The answer is "yes" they will be headed up. Everytime the Fed lowers rates the market place starts moving mortgage rates up to compensate for the inflation that is surely forthcoming. Just look at what happened this last week. The Average 30 year rate went from 5.63% to 5.98%. Up over 1/3 percentage point in a single week.

BUY NOW OR WAIT? UNLESS ALL THE OPINIONS ABOVE ARE WRONG - NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME IF YOU WANT A GREAT DEAL!

Thinking of Buying Real Estate at the best price in Birmingham & Bloomfield Hills - The time may be NOW!

The National Association of Realtors says that sales have reached the lowest point since 1999… BUT they went on to say that even though most of the country had a drop in sales the MIDWEST area had an INCREASE in sales of 3.4% this January.

Think back to the last major down turn in rel estate and what happened when things finally started to get better. The Midwest was the leader coming out of the last downturn. We started to get better while some other sections of the country were still headed downward. History may be ready to repeat itself. If so this may be the right time to start looking for what may turn out to be the best opportunity to find that real bargain.

Consider looking at some of the real bargains available in todays marketplace today.

Wouldn't it be nice to not make another house payment?

Most homeowners do not have a good understanding of what a Reverse Mortgage is all about. To put it simply: It is using the equity in your home to pay expenses you have. An example would be if: You take out a reverse mortgage and use the funds to make the payments on your existing home loan so that you never have to make another house payment as long as you live.

If this idea holds some interest please call me for additional information on what to watch for when considering a Reverse Mortgage.

Birmingham Bloomfield Hills are included in the MIDWEST area

REAL Trends Housing Market Report - November 2007 vs. November 2006

Our good fortune to live in America

This truly is a season to care, to say thank you, a season for sharing, for hugs.  Driving around Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills today I noted so many homes with beautiful wreaths on the front.  A wreath is a welcoming signal to others it is that circle that one can enter into in a hug, a marriage, an A-ok sign, is is a thank you. 

One individual, Morrill Worcester, has done a beautiful thing since December 1992, by placing wreaths at 5000 of  the headstones at Arlington National Cemetery.  Each year it is planned that 5000 wreaths will be placed.  Each year the director of the cemetery  selects the location for the wreath-laying with plans to eventually cover all the areas of the park over the years.

This includes Birmingham Bloomfield Hills in the Mid West Section

You can see from the statistics quoted here that sales are slower but it sure doesn’t show the gloom and doom or huge drop in value that some writers are talking about. These are hard fact from what I consider a very informed source.

REAL Trends, the nation’s leading source of trends and analysis on the residential real estate services industry, is launching a new report on the housing market, the REAL Trends Housing Market Report. This new report tracks actual housing sales from real estate brokerage firms from every state in the nation and compares current month activity with the same month one year earlier. The total sales base being tracked represents over 35 percent of all reported housing sales completed by brokerage firms and will be reported each month. 

With winter here to stay make sure your faucets don't FREEZE

Now that freezing temperatures are here to stay Realtors are winterizing their vacant homes. That process made me think about what you should do for the home you are living in right now.

The most common problem we see at this time of year is caused when homeowners forget to remove garden hoses from exterior faucets and to turn off the water supply inside the house. Once this is done you need to open the outside faucet and allow the water to drain. If you can’t shut off the water inside the home you need to stop by the hardware store and pick up an insulated cover for each outside faucet.

You can find them on line at Aubuchon Hardware.