Milford Market YTD Sales - 02/28/10 07:26 PM
Most people who ask about a market want to know what's sold there recently. I track 6 local markets and below is a table with what has sold since the beginning of the year in one of those markets - the Milford, Michigan market, which is comprised of Milford Township and the Village of Milford. To see all of the data on all six markets, go to my Milford Team Web Site.



The table is crammed together to get it into the blog frame. The second column indicates whether the property was F - foreclosed or a S … (0 comments)

How's the real estate market in Bloomfield Hills? - 02/28/10 06:36 AM
Just north of Birmingham, Michigan which I reported on last, is the City of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, which,with Birmingham, takes up quite a bit of Bloomfield Township. This is another of our local upscale areas, with large homes on estate sized lots. Home prices in this area have held up better than in other areas in the region, and the media sale price is very sensitive to the inventory level - as more inventory came on the market in mid-year last year prices tumbled; however, as the inventory sold off and wasn't replaced the median sale prices rose again.

… (1 comments)

Just ‘cause it's in a blog don't make it so... - 02/27/10 11:30 AM
There is a tendency to start believing that things that one sees on-line must somehow be true. Of course, some things (like the occasional rants here on AR) are so outrageous that we automatically discount them and the person making the statements. However, we may have become like more and more teachers who are allowing students to site blogs and wikis as their "sources" for materials in papers that they do. We tend to believe that it must be true because we saw it on-line.
Both blogs and wikis are collections of  the personal thoughts of the various authors and may … (1 comments)

The Real Estate Market in Birmingham, Michigan - 02/26/10 01:48 PM
Birmingham is one of our more affluent local neighborhoods but even there the housing market slump has prevailed. As you can see there was an uptick in the last quarter of last year, but it soon faded and the downward trend for median sold prices picked up again.



The trend in inventory in the Birmingham market tracked that of the rest of the area - steadily downward. Hopefully that means we are working off the inventory overhang of foreclosed homes. In Birmingham thus far this year 48 homes have sold, from a low price of $39,900 to … (0 comments)

2010 Market Report from Real Estate One - 02/25/10 08:02 PM
One of the cool things about working for Real Estate One is that they keep some really nice databases and do some great reporting off of that data. Below is a link to the report that was just released by the company on the market as we exited 2009 and headed into 2010. As you flip through it there is a just a ton of great information about the 5-county local market here is Southeastern Michigan and about the other markets that Real Estate One serves in Michigan. This is just another reason why it's so great to be a part … (0 comments)

Olympic Real Estate Dreams... - 02/25/10 06:51 PM
There was a story in our local newspaper this week written by a reported who is covering the winter Olympics. She has apparently really grown to like the Whistler Olympic Prk area where many of the alpine venues are and decided to pick up a local real estate book to see what might be available. What she found were luxury, 900 Sq. Ft. condos going for about $1.2 Million.
Hmmm. I'll bet you could buy a nice small home in California for that or a nice mansion in Dallas or Atlanta OR you could buy almost every one of the 282 houses that … (0 comments)

Has Detroit overshot the market downside? - 02/25/10 10:10 AM
The Final S&P Case-Shiller report for 2009 was released on Wednesday of this week (click here to read the whole report) and it shows a national market that is perhaps cautiously probing for a bottom to the current housing mess. It certainly appears to show the positive impact of some of the Federal programs, especially the tax credit programs for first-time buyers. But, it also shows another downturn as we exited 2009; so, all is not well, yet.One of the things that I noticed when reading through the report is how far the Detroit metro area has overshot the mark in … (2 comments)

How's the real estate market in West Bloomfield, Michigan? - 02/24/10 07:04 AM
I don't track the West Bloomfield, Michigan market on a weekly basis any more. I did that for a couple of years because I used to live there and because I still go back for church there, plus I have lots of friends and prospects in that area. I've had some nice listings in the area and still solicit business there and show houses there quite often.

So, I thought I'd post this update on how the real estate market is doing there. As you can see, the West Bloomfield market has been tracking with the general market trends … (0 comments)

The Real Estate Market in Brighton, MIchigan - 02/23/10 07:06 AM
Today we look at market conditions in Brighton, Michigan, the sixth of the six local townships that I track on a weekly basis in my market area. As you can see from the chart below, the Brighton market, which is comprised of the City of Brighton and Brighton Township, along with portions of Genoa and Marion Townships, is on much the same trend lines as most of the markets that I track. The Brighton market had a brief up tick in Q2/Q3 of 2009, but fell again in later Q3 and through Q4 and into 2010.



Of … (0 comments)

Just trying to share the wealth... - 02/22/10 04:19 PM
I received the email below today and wanted to try to share the wealth a bit here. You see almost all of my money is currently tied up trying to help the ex-Treasury Minister of Botswana get his fortune out of the country and safely moved to the U.S. The rest was sent to help a friend who apparently traveled to Europe unbeknownst to me and got himself in a bit of a problem where his passport and all of his money and credit cards were stolen. Of course I had to wire money to help to his lawyer there - … (3 comments)

IRS Clarifies documentation requirements for home buyer tax credit - 02/22/10 12:06 PM
The IRS recently provided additional clarification regarding documentation requirements on the First-Time Homebuyer Credit.
From the IRS Web site comes this guidance:
The IRS encourages buyers seeking the homebuyer credit to sign the settlement statement when they file their tax return -- even in cases where the settlement form does not include a signature line.
The IRS recognizes that elements of the settlement document, often a Form HUD-1, may vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and may not reflect the signatures of both the buyer and seller. While the Form 5405 instructions indicate that a properly executed settlement statement should show the … (0 comments)

The real estate market in South Lyon and Lyon Township Michigan - 02/22/10 08:21 AM
The South Lyon and Lyon Township market is one of the few in the area where new building is still going on. It may have slowed quite a bit, but it is still going on in several big developments in the township and city. As you can see on the chart below, the trend in Median sale prices in South Lyon and Lyon Township appears to have bottomed out in the 4th Qtr. of 2009 and has been bumping along the bottom since then. Recently it even turned up again, with homes gaining a bit of value - a good sign … (0 comments)

The real estate market in Commerce Twp, Michigan - 02/21/10 08:04 AM
Commerce Township is one of the two markets in the areas that I track that had a turn around in the trend line of Median Home Prices - turning upward in early January, 2010, and still tracking in that direction as of today.



The inventory line for home in the Commerce Township area is still trending downward and that's a good thing, since it helps to stabilize home prices. This may mean that Commerce Township has worked off its overhang of foreclosed homes and is now returning to a more normal market.

In February, as of … (0 comments)

518 Atlantic St Open House Sunday 1 - 4 PM - 02/20/10 09:24 AM

Join me Sunday, February 21, between 1 PM and 4 PM at the first open house for the great little bungalow at 518 Atlantic St in Milford, Michigan. You can walk to downtown Milford from this 1232 Sqw Ft bungalow that was built in 1925 and has allof the Craftsman style woodwork and hardwood floors that you would expect. What you wouldn't necessarily expect is the totally remodeled kitchen and the remodeled bathroom - very nice. And then there's the master bedroom, whcih is a later addition to the house and has the room to accomodate a king-sized bed (rare … (0 comments)

The real estate market in White Lake, Michigan - 02/20/10 06:23 AM
The real estate market in White Lake, Michigan has been kind of bouncing along the bottom for the last six months, in terms of home values. They had fallen dramatically over the last few years, but seem to have stabilized.
Since the beginning of 2010 there have been 36 sales in White Lake of homes with values over $20,000 (there may have been a few under that price, but that's my cut-off doe tracking purposes) and the median sale price has been $185,500. Those houses spent an average of 153 days on the market. There were 246 homes on the … (3 comments)

Do they HAFA play by the rules? - 02/19/10 04:55 PM
I've been researching the new, soon to be in affect guidelines for short sales under  HAFA, which is a part of HAMP which is of course part of MHA, which HUD hopes will help distressed homeowners. There seems to be quite a diverse set of reactions to they HAFA Program and it's short sale alternative and quite a wide set of opinions about it's potential to succeed.
The NAR video on HAFA seems to be cautiously optimistic; although with reservations about some parts. The Blog-o-sphere is all over the place, from "this is the greatest thing since sliced bread" to "this … (2 comments)

How's the real estate market in Highland, Michigan? - 02/19/10 07:44 AM
Highland, Michigan is one of the six local Township markets that I track on a weekly basis. Some of those markets have recently had a sort of revival, turning upward in terms of the median value of homes that have sold. Highland median home values had a renaissance of sorts at the end of last year, but has trended down again, with home values continuing to slide year-over-year.



The inventory on the market continues it's fairly consistent slide as the foreclosure overhang is worked off. Foreclosed homes continue to represent more than 50% of the sales in Highland, … (2 comments)

How's the real estate market in Milford, Michigan - 02/18/10 10:23 AM
I get that question a lot, so I want to show you some of the the charts that I keep on my Web sites and invite you to visit them as often as you'd like to keep up on the market. Below is a chart for the Milford Market, both the Township and the Village, that shows a couple of data trends - one for the median price that homes are selling for in that market and one for the amount of inventory on the market. These charts are dynamic, so they are up to date whenever you look at them.
… (0 comments)

Market Conditions in Brighton, Michigan - 02/17/10 10:15 AM
After a brief uptick in Q3 of 2009, home values in the Brighton area - both city and township - have returned to the downward slide that has been the hallmark of the local market for some time.



Inventory in Brighton is still tracking downward, as it is across the local marekt area. Foreclosures and short sales make up the bulk of the sales (80% so far in February), as the Brighton market tries to work off the distressed property overhang.

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Norm Werner is a local, full-service, full-time Realtor working out of the Milford … (0 comments)

Market conditions in South Lyon, Michigan - 02/17/10 09:58 AM
After falling all of last year, median home values finally took a turn for the better in January and are headed back up. The Lyon Twp/South Lyon area continues to also be a hotbed of new-bulld activity in this area. The South Lyon area is still working off an overhang of foreclosed properties, but maybe it is past the worst of things.



The inventory in South Lyon continues to fall, which is probably good for the builders there. There are probably 8-10 new build developments that have started bulding again - a good sign for a housing recovery.
… (0 comments)

Market conditions in Commerce, Michigan - 02/17/10 09:47 AM
Things in Commerce Township, Michigan seem to have turned around a bit, in terms of median home values with a spike upward in median homes values starting in mid January and continuing through today. It's about time that some markets turned up!



The inventory in Commerce like elsewhere in the local market is still headed down, which can't help but help.

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Norm Werner is a local, full-service agent working out of the Milford, Michigan offices of Real Estate One, Michigan's largest and most successful real estate company. To find out more abnout Norm and to … (1 comments)

Market Conditions for White Lake, Michigan - 02/17/10 09:26 AM
Home values in White Lake, Michigan continue to bounce along the bottom in this market and have turned up in February. Perhaps that is a sign of the bottom for this area and a start back towards a more "normal" market. Let's all hope so.



The inventory in the White Lake market continues to fall and that's a good thing for the market, as it brings some stability to home prices. White Lake also has had a relatively low percentage of foreclosures and short sales in the sales mix lately. Perhaps they just worked their foreclosure inventory off … (0 comments)

MArket Conditions for Highland Michigan - 02/17/10 09:04 AM
After a short winter thaw in value declines at the end of last year median home prices in the market in Highland, Michigan turned down again in January and are still dropping:



The inventory also continues to drop in Highland. There is certainly some indication in this area that banks are holding new foreclosures off the market in hopes of shoring up the market a bit. The whole move-up market - buyers and sellers - is pretty moribund here too.

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Norm Werner is a Realtor working for Real Estate One, Michigan's largest real estate company … (0 comments)

Market conditions in Milford, Michigan - 02/17/10 08:45 AM
Here's an updated and dynamic look at the market in the Milford, MIchigan area:



As you can see we are still on downslope of the big hill on the roller coaster that is the real estate market lately. Home values continue to slide and the median sold price index continues down with them. The inventory is down too, since so many people have decided to sit on the sidelines until this mess clears up. We are still seeing an increase in foreclosed homes hitting the market as well as short sales.

The bottom line is that it's … (1 comments)

Re-blogging - am I supposed to be happy or upset? - 02/15/10 07:08 PM
This morning I posted a blopg entitled "How's the market?" It wasn't a masterpiece, but it was something original that I took the time to write and post and had hoped to get some reaction to and comments upon. Less than 5 minutes after I had posted it and while it was still on the first page of the blog role somebody that I've never met in North or South Carolina re-blogged it here on ActiveRain under the same title. He added one sentence to it and made it his own. It was properly accredited in the re-blog, I guess, but still I found … (13 comments)

How's the market? - 02/15/10 06:51 AM
We talked about "the Discussion" last week, so let's discuss "the Question" this week. Do you ever get that question - "How's the real estate market?" I get it all the time.  How do you respond? Do you try to paint a rosy picture or maybe swing too far the other way and descend into gloom and doom? It's not as simple of a question as it appears to be on the surface, nor is the answer to it simple either.
The U.S. real estate market is all over the map (pun intended) in terms of home price devaluation, local economic … (0 comments)

A seller's response to offer... - 02/13/10 08:05 AM
Usually when an offer is presented to the sellers they have four possible responses - accept the offer, modify the offer and send it back as a counter-offer, reject the offer or just let the offer expire (if it has an expiration date indicated on it). Locally we also use a response vehicle called a "Seller's Response to Offer", which may be thought of as a halfway point between the counteroffer and the rejection listed above. A Seller's Response to Offer is particularly useful in situations where activity indicates that more than one offer is likely.
The way the Seller's Response … (6 comments)

Oh no, not "the discussion", again... - 02/12/10 08:09 PM
 
In your love life you may not want to have "the discussion"...the "it's not you, it's me" discussion that leads to the big breakup. It's never pleasant, never something that you look forward to, but sometimes it's something that you just need to have in order to move on.
The same is sometime true of our real estate lives, only "the discussion" is most often about setting the right price for a house that you hope to list. I had the discussion yesterday, twice. I guess the fact that I had the opportunity twice in one day is good news; … (32 comments)

Fannie Mae incentive program to buy appliances... - 02/12/10 08:14 AM
Fannie Mae recently announced a sales incentive to encourage the sale of their REO properties. Local Michigan Bank Flagstar Bank issues the following guidelines for how the program will work.

This new incentive would apply to properties with purchase agreements signed on or after January28, 2010, and are closed and funded on or before April 30, 2010. During the negotiation of the purchase, Fannie Mae is offering buyers an incentive of up to 3.5% of the final sales price to be used towards the purchase of new Whirlpool® appliances. This appliance incentive is considered as part of the purchase price … (0 comments)

It's all about the drive by wire systems... - 02/11/10 02:25 PM
Today's post is totally off the topic of real estate, but then none of us is completely one-dimensional. With all of the hoopla and news coverage about the Toyota recalls what has been lost in the noise is that all cars are somewhere in the process of shifting over to drive-by-wire systems in major areas like the speed/acceleration control (the thing that we quaintly still call the gas pedal), the braking systems and the steering systems. Older readers will smile knowingly when I mention that I remember when cars had carburetors (you can still see those relics on some street rods) … (1 comments)

Don't be fooled by the smiley faces... - 02/10/10 11:15 AM
I try to keep a positive attitude and to project that with clients; however, I refuse to be the devil in the smiley face mask, trying to paint a rosy picture of the current market in from of potential listing clients. We are still in a crappy market, especially here in Michigan. Our unemployment continue to run 3-4 points higher than the national average and almost all of our local markets are still declining in terms of home values.

So why would anyone put on the smiley-face mask and lie to potential sellers, just to get the listing? Well maybe … (5 comments)

You may never be seen here... - 02/09/10 12:17 PM
 
I suppose that I'm going to have to better understand the ActiveRain channels and other categories that one can post to here. Otherwise, much of the stuff that I post here may never be seen. I enjoy blogging and try to post something on a daily basis, although I don't always stick on topic to real estate. What I have noticed is that the blog role here is so fast, with so many active bloggers, that one's post stays on the first page of the roll for about 30-60 seconds (depending upon when one posts) and then rather quickly scrolls … (1 comments)

Hope springs eternal... - 02/08/10 07:42 AM
“Hope may play traitor at times, but she is so agreeable that we forgive her offences for the sake of her company.” (Minna Thomas Antrim) from the Jack’s Winning Words Blog. Minna wrote those words over 100 years ago, yet they are still relevant today. Every now and then hope lets us down, as I’m sure the Indianapolis Colts fans would agree this morning; however, the warm embrace of hope is always preferable to the cold despair of having no hope.

These days keeping hope alive is one of our biggest jobs as Realtorsâ and we have multiple clients for … (1 comments)

Presenting 1176 S. Williams Lake Rd - 02/07/10 08:19 PM

Not a foreclosure or short sale, just a great buy on a nice house that will make a great home for someone. Entry level is freshly primed and ready for your decorating ideas. Open floor plan has huge living room that is open to the  kitchen and dining areas. Large master bedroom on entry level, with large walk-in closet, plus two more bedrooms on the second floor. Great loft/library area on upper level. Full baths on entry and upper level and half bath in finished lower level. Big workshop area in lower level, too. Large balcony deck out back overlooks … (0 comments)

Just Listed 518 Atlantic Street, MIlford, MI - 02/07/10 08:06 PM

This wonderful vintage home was built in 1925 and has all of the great woodwork and wood floors and other character that you would expect to find in a home of that era. What you might not expect is what great condition the home is in. The current owners have updated the kitchen and bath, put on a new roof, updated the electrical system an much more. It is move-in ready. The 1232 Sq Ft Craftsman-style bungalow is within easy walking distance of downtwown Milford, so you can enjoy all ofhte parades and festivals and other events that Milford is … (1 comments)

What is an emerging science? - 02/06/10 07:10 AM
Do you ever see or listen to one of those commercials, usually for some over the counter nutrition or health product that says, as a part of the commercial, “which emerging science suggests may…” and it goes on to make some claim about curing whatever it is aimed at or assisting you in not losing your mind or whatever. Have you ever wondered what emerging science is? Where is it emerging from and why was it kept hidden from us for so long?

By definition, a science is something that relies on repeatable and verifiable testing of hypotheses to reach … (1 comments)

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you... - 02/05/10 07:50 AM
The percentage of vacant homes in the U.S. rose from 2.6 percent to 2.7 percent in the third quarter of 2009, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday. There were 2.09 million vacant properties available for sale, up from 1.99 million, the Census said. This number includes both listed properties and those that banks are holding without listing. I suppose that the headline above is too late for most neighborhoods. There are vacant or abandoned homes in almost every neighborhood, no matter how rich those neighborhoods may look to the casual observer.

In fact in some areas there are likely more … (1 comments)

Is this really the new normal? - 02/04/10 07:07 AM
Source: Inman News (02/01/10) - In a new study, "Housing in America: The Next Decade," Urban Land Institute senior resident fellow John McIlwain says the housing market will not return to what it was prior to the downturn but rather that a "new normal" will take its place.

He expects another 10 percent decrease in residential prices this year, a jump in the number of borrowers abandoning "underwater" mortgages, and a change in consumer perceptions of homeownership.

He expects home price appreciation to hover around 1 percent or 2 percent per year after the market recovers and the national … (2 comments)

The sins of their past are visited upon us all... - 02/03/10 07:44 AM
From The Wall Street Journal, Nick Timiraos (01/30/2010)

Accountants at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are auditing mortgage files to uncover loans with improper documentation about a borrower’s income, and then forcing banks and savings and loans to buy the loans back.

Freddie required lenders to buy back $2.7 billion of loans in the first nine months of 2009. Fannie Mae won’t disclose its figures, but the mortgage trade publication Inside Mortgage Finance said Fannie made $4.3 billion in loan-repurchase requests in the first nine months of 2009. One result is that banks are underwriting mortgage loans even more … (5 comments)

MY own little Groundhog Day... - 02/02/10 07:42 AM
strong>“What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?” (Phil Connors) - from the movie, Groundhog Day. Indeed, many of us are stuck in the same place every day and don’t realize it. We tend to do the same things, to get into ruts that feel comfortable, even if they aren’t very productive. That’s true of our personal lives and of our professional lives.

It’s really a human nature thing to seek a comfort zone and stay there, unless rooted out by some un-natural happening. … (4 comments)

Fannie Mae to help homebuyers with 3.5% concessions - 02/01/10 07:49 AM
From the Fannie Mae Web site comes this press release:
WASHINGTON, DC - Fannie Mae (FNM/NYSE) announced today that people purchasing a Fannie Mae-owned HomePath® property will receive up to 3.5 percent of the final sales price to be used toward closing cost assistance or their choice of appliances. The offer is available to any owner-occupant who closes on the purchase of a property listed on HomePath.com before May 1, 2010.
"Attracting qualified buyers to the market and reducing the inventory of vacant homes is critical to stabilizing neighborhoods and helping the market recover. Many families are taking advantage of the … (0 comments)

 
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Norm Werner

Milford, MI

More about me…

Real Estate One

Address: 560 N. Milford Rd, Milford, MI, 48381

Office Phone: (248) 684-1065

Cell Phone: (248) 763-2497

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Posts about things going on in Real Estate in Milford, Michigan; Highland, Michigan; White Lake, Michigan; Commerce Twp, Michigan,; West Bloomfield, Michigan; South Lyon, Michigan; Birghton, Michigan and HArtland, Michigan in Oakland and Livingston Counties of Michigan


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