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"What's going on?"

By
Real Estate Agent with Bolton-Johnston Associates of Grosse Pointe

"What's going on?" Marvin Gaye sang back in 1971 in an album by the same name.  Wikipedia described the song as "A meditation on the troubles and problems of the world, the song proved a timely and relatable release" and so it is today a good title for a blog article about just what's happening in our local real estate in a suburb of Motown. 

The first-time homebuyers tax credit which was implemented and recently renewed and expanded seems to be working.  Inventory numbers are going down as first-time home buyers have entered the realm of homeownership.  In fact NAR says "47 percent of all home sales were entry-level buyers, compared to 41 percent a year ago."  And, NAR goes on to say that "...data shows that the tax credit has contributed approximately $22 billion to the general economy. Each home purchase generates about $63,000, the equivalent of about one new job."  And that is very good news. 

"NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun is cautiously optimistic about the 2010 housing market outlook."  He mentions that "housing and the economy appear headed for a sustainable recovery" and with the expanding "additional buyers" into the formula that home prices should rise between 3% & 5% in 2010.  And that is good news.

Locally, our housing inventory has gone down from a high of 644 houses listed for sale in the 5 Grosse Pointes on 11/10/08 to 505 as of the writing of this blog (12/7/09)...that's down 139 houses, down by better than 20%

We will still be dealing with short sales, deeds in lieu and foreclosures and they will continue to have an impact on pricing of homes.  The inventory is going down which has a stabilizing effect on prices. However, with potentially more distressed properties to come on the market only time will tell what our future will bring. 

 

 

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