October 2011 Real Estate Market Update

October 2011 Real Estate Market Update

So far this year we have had a classic economic struggle of Good vs. Evil

On the Good side:
Values are stable to rising (even Case-Shiller shows metro Detroit values are up!)
We are creating jobs in Michigan
Consumer Confidence moved up a bit
Strong pent up buyer and seller demand
Record low combination of prices and interest rates

For the Evil team:
Lack of saleable home inventories
Larger percentage of homes with little to no equity
Slow Job Growth
Stock market volatility

To date, good has won out over the evil, but the market did pause a bit in the last 45 days, with the pace of buyer demand sliding (but still ahead of last year at this time). There are a couple of potential causes; the stock market/European "noise" has been distracting (3q 401K statements came out in Oct, which may have scared some), but the main cause may be that we simply do not have enough saleable homes. If you don't have enough logs for the fire, it will eventually die down. We could be in for a strange stair step real estate recovery cycle: sales rise, depleting inventories, then falling from fewer homes to sell which causes values to rise (fewer listing=feeding frenzy), bringing more homes back into the market (more Sellers can now sell), starting the cycle over again. It is a scenario that occurs with every recovery but exaggerated today because lower home equity levels are keeping a lid on inventories.

Price per square foot has continued to rise compared to last year, with available homes for sale up slightly as well (mainly over $250,000). The available home levels feel lower, because it has actually fallen over the past 90 days (as it did last year as well). The seasonal shifts make it difficult to judge the true market momentum without comparing to the same time last year. Pending home sales are at a faster pace than last year as well, causing the Months Supply of Inventory to fall over the past 90 days, which is putting positive pressure on values.

Our best leading market indicators are open house and website visits and the number of showings on our listings. As you can see from the chart, compared to the same time last year, all three have positive trends, with the showing count showing some mixed signals (confirming the October slowing).

A couple of really great bragging points about our organization. We had a successful Chevy Cruze give away, raising over $22,000 on behalf of Special Olympics (the first ticket sold won!) and we have been named one of Michigan's Top Work Places by the Detroit Free Press and Work Place Dynamics! A special thank you to our entire Family for your support of our community and each other.

Dan

If you don't remotely know how or where to begin with building or re-building your business, come work with us. We already have systems in place that do it all for you!

The best in their field, even professional athletes take advantage of coaching. If you would like the benefit of working with a full time coach, absolutely free to you, please call me directly or email to set up an interview.

Suzanne O'Brien
(313) 516-6644
suzanneo@realestateone.com