July 2010 Real Estate Market Update

July 2010 Real Estate Market Update:


It is not surprising that the market has continued to slow compared to the pre tax-credit days of this past spring as well as this time last year. All in all, the sales pace still remains surprisingly strong, post tax credit. Buyers are getting more confident each day (the talk of year-end bonuses from the Big Three has helped) and with a reduced inventory of homes, we are seeing more examples of price wars for the hot properties. Reduced bank owned inventories continue to cause Median prices to rise as Buyers switch to higher priced retail or short sale properties. We will not be able to truly judge the strength of the market until October, when the total effect of the tax credit has cleared the market.

Our current business mix is as follows, with Traditional Retail moving up from 15% in prior months.

Leases 20%
Bank Owned 18%
Short Sale 40%
Traditional 22%

For many price ranges, this is the best time in the past three years to have your home on the market, particularly if it is occupied, updated and in great condition. The hottest price points continue to be under $100,000, but the $200,000 to $350,000 price range in most markets seems to be getting stronger as well.

There are a number of homes on the market, but many have been on the market for many months to even years, hampered by condition and/or price. A home, well priced, updated and in good condition will attract multiple offers in a short period of time. But the market is a bit finicky, if you are off just a bit on the right price and the condition is average, the market will be very silent.

Before a Seller is willing to adjust their price, they need to be confident their home has been exposed to enough buyers to truly test the market. Since we market our properties to the broadest buyer audience of any broker in the state, we are able to effectively use buyer inquires as our ultimate judge of whether our homes have the right price point to match their features, location and condition. If we are not getting web inquires or showing requests each week, it is pretty certain the price point needs to be changed.

We have a number of good news stories this past month. Bloomberg/Business Week ran an article that projected that the Metro Detroit Area will be one of the fastest turnaround markets in the country (Bloomberg/Business Week ). Also, Real Trends did a study comparing productivity per sales associate in 2000 vs. 2009 (comparable years in terms of homes sold). We were one of only five companies in the top 500 nationally that showed an improvement in sales associate productivity!! Your hard work shows, across the entire country!

Be sure to have your clients try out your new personal Mobile Web Site. They simply type in your personal WebOne URL into their smart phone browser and they will get a specialized search site customized for their smart phone. Also, so far, in the first two months we have generated 3,064 client inquires from our new First to Know Voice and Phone programs!
Great job in July!
(See the total market summary below)
Dan Elsea

Total Market Summary – All Price Ranges
Number of Homes Pending Available Homes for Sale
Area July 09 July 10 % Change July 09 July 10 % Change
Oakland County 2,198 1,872 -14.8% 14,530 10,794 -25.7%
Macomb County 1,184 1,092 -7.8% 6,111 4,948 -19.0%
Livingston County 220 209 -5.0% 2,153 1,705 -20.8%
Washtenaw County 283 270 -4.6% 2,172 1,786 -17.8%
Wayne County 3,157 2,455 -22.2% 13,950 11,475 -17.7%
Northwest Michigan* 204 118 -42.2% 4,502 4,405 -2.2%
Total 7,246 6,016 -17.0% 43,418 35,113 -19.1%

Median Sale Price Ave Chance of Selling (in 30 days)
Area July 09 July 10 % Change July 09 July 10 % Change
Oakland County $100,000 $111,725 11.7% 15% 17% 14.6%
Macomb County $72,800 $77,000 5.8% 19% 22% 13.9%
Livingston County $124,950 $140,000 12.0% 10% 12% 20.0%
Washtenaw County $160,000 $162,000 1.3% 13% 15% 16.0%
Wayne County $29,000 $42,000 44.8% 23% 21% -5.5%
Northwest Michigan*$143,000 $140,000 -2.1% 5% 3% -40.9%
Total 68,933 80,762 17.2% 16.7% 17.1% 2.7%

Residential and Condominiums
Data Source: MIRealsource, Realcomp, TAAR, Ann Arbor and BrokerMetrics
Ave Chance reflects the % chance the average home will sell in the next 30 days under the current rate of sales
* Includes Grand Traverse, Kalkaska, Antrim, Leelanau and Benzie counties