Detroit Real Estate

 Today I was reading on MSN.com and they had an article on How far Metro Detroit real estate prices have fallen.  I read Cities where homes have lost the most value.  In the article it said the Metro Detroit area homes have lost 31% of their value. 

If you look at the Detroit Metro real estate market as a circle with Detroit as the center, then the next ring of cities, and then the more upscale cities.

The more upscale cities like West Bloomfield, Canton Township, Northville, Rochester have lost 31% of their value.  But you start moving into the inner circle of many of the middle class cities like Dearborn, Redford, Southfield.  Those cities had some homes that their high prices in 2003 were from $100-$140,000.  Now they are ranging from $50,000 to $70,000.  I would say the average loss in those cities about 50%

But the City of Detroit real estate prices in my opinion have taken a huge dive.  I don't know exactly what the average sales price of Detroit homes were at their height.  But I would take a guess and say the average price was about $65,000.  Last year the average sold price of 10,514 Detroit homes that sold through our MLS was $10,692. 

                                  $10,692. Average sold price

                                                                             That's a 83% drop!!!! 

So I think over all Metro Detroit real estate has dropped more than 31%.  But that is just from a guy in the trenchs.  I don't have all the statistics but this is what I am seeing.   

Information provided courtesy of RealComp II Ltd

Russ Ravary your Metro Detroit real estate agent

My quote of the day:

Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help
        them to become what they are capable of being.
                                                                                                      - Goethe

So you are you buying a piece of Canton Township real estate and you want to know what sellers concessions mean?

If you are a Canton Township home buyer and you don't have the enough money to buy a home.  Sure you have the 3 1/2% that FHA requires, but you don't have much more.  And you can't get more from any family members.  So what do you do?  You want to buy a Canton home but you don't have the money.  Yes you can still buy the home. 

The way it is done is by asking for sellers concessions.  Seller's concessions is when the seller pays for your closing costs.  On a FHA loan you can get up to 6% of the purchase price to pay for closing costs.  So if you are buying a $150,000 Canton home you can get 6% of $150,000.  That is $150,000 x .06 = $9000.

But you have to remember when you ask for sellers concessions it is coming out of the seller's bottom line.  So if you offer $150,000 on that Canton ranch home the seller is only going to get $141,000 because he is giving you $9000.  So take this home buyer tip and use it well.  If you know there are multiple bids on a house take into account the sellers concessions you are asking for. 

The bottom line is: If you only have the down payment for the house you can buy a home.  All you have to do is have your Real estate agent ask for seller's concessions.

If you are a metro Detroit first time home buyer and don't understand a part of the home buying process always feel free to call me on my cell phone (313) 310-9855 or email me yesmyrealtor@gmail.com. 

Canton Michigan relocation information

                                                         Search Canton Township homes for sale

If you are going to be relocating to Michigan how do you know where you are going to live?  As a real estate agent we can't steer people to one area because of race, religion, family status.  Over the years there has been housing discrimination against different religions, different races, different ethnic groups.

Detroit and it's suburbs were once racially divided.  I believe because of the sub-prime mortgage market it allowed Metro Detroit to become more ethnically and racially diverse.  The ease of getting a mortgage helped us become a better city.  It's natural the immigrants move into the poor areas because that is where the low cost housing is.  It's natural that people want to be with people that are similar to them.  New York has little Italy, San Francisco has China town.  Most major cities have ethnic areas.

Metro Detroit has those areas but what is a little different is that even amongst our "individual ethnic areas" many other religious, cultures, and races live.  Metro Detroit has become a melting pot.  Metro Detroit ethnic areas are like other big city ethnic areas.  We have great ethnic stores, bakeries, restaurants that are unique to the area.  They aren't chain restaurants.  They are unique and great places to visit different cultures right in our city.   Places to worship according to their culture and sometime in their language.

If you live here in the Metro Detroit area you know that

• Ford Motor Company employees live on the West side of town
• Hamtramck is where our "Polish community live"
• Birmingham, Grosse Pointe, Northville, Grosse Ile, Plymouth, Bloomfield Hills, West Bloomfield, Rochester are our wealthier towns 
• Our "Greek town" no longer has Greeks living together because it has become a commercial area.
• Dearborn MI has one of the highest concentrations of Arabic descent citizens in the US.
• Royal Oak, Rochester, Milford, Howell, Plymouth, Northville have old time central down towns
• Chrysler employees live north of Detroit
• Southwest Detroit is home to our Mexican population
• Ypsilanti, Ann Arbor, and Lansing are our college towns
• Ann Arbor and Novi have a good sized Asian population
• Oakland County is our lake real estate area
• Canton has a high population of Indian and Pakistani citizens 

But if you look deeper into the cities none of them are over 50% of the ethnic groups I described.   Italians, Greeks, Irish, Eastern European, Russian, and Germans all live in these cities.  We have all come from some other country.  Some of the cities only have a 10, 20, or 30% concentration of the ethnic group I described.  Like Novi it is a beautiful diverse city with great schools the Asian population may only be 10%.  Many of the foreign car company house their employees in Novi.  Mazda used to house their oversea employees down river.  But I wanted to give a glimpse of the metro Detroit area where you can find great authentic places to eat, and find people that you relate to and feel comfortable with. 

Metro Detroit is a great place to live.  If you are going to relocate to Michigan there are lots of great places to live.

Russ Ravary your Metro Detroit real estate agent. 

Search Michigan home listings 

you put in an offer in on a Canton short sale or metro Detroit short sale doesn't mean the deal is going to go thru.  Even if the home seller has signed the purchase agreement it doesn't matter.

Here are some of the hurdles that you face are:

1.  The bank hires an appraiser to determine fair market value.  So if you are offering too little they are not going to accept your offer.  Sometimes they won't even counter back.  So my advice is don't bid below the lowest comp in the area.  They will usually accept offers at the low range of the comparables.

2.  The seller won't co-operate.  Sometimes the seller really doesn't care to sell the house.  They sometimes are just trying to delay moving out of the house.  Sometimes they are delaying the foreclosures process.  If the seller doesn't get the bank all the information they want the deal is not going thru.

3.  The bank doesn't agree that the house should be in a short sale.  Sometimes the bank thinks the home owner makes too much money, or doesn't have a financial hardship.  Sometimes the homeowner is just trying to do a short sale so they can buy a bigger house, or to move out of a certain city.

4.  There is a second mortgage on the home.  This makes it harder to get a Metro Detroit short sale done.  What happens in the short sale and foreclosure process is that the second mortgage holder doesn't get anything.  Sometimes the second mortgage company is very hard to deal with.  Sometimes the second mortgage holder wants more money and refuses to give in.

5.  You.  Yes the buyer is one of the reasons why a Canton short sale may fail.   So many homebuyers get tired of waiting.  Some Metro Detroit short sales take 4, 5, or even 6 months to complete.  Some metro Detroit home buyers get tired of waiting. 

These are just a few of the reason why a short sale done.  I always tell my clients to keep looking even after they put a short sale offer in because the house may never become yours.  I would estimate that only 60% of all Metro Detroit short sales close.

Search Canton homes for sale and Metro Detroit home listings

Russ Ravary your Canton real estate agent serving Oakland, Livingston, and Wayne County

My joke for the holiday season is:

The Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot have a nativity scene in Washington, D.C.  This wasn't for any religious reasons.  They couldn't find three wise men and a virgin.  ~Jay Leno

Here is a quick update about Canton condos and Canton real estate in Wayne County Michigan.  Can you believe that some Canton condos sold for as little as $22 a square foot.  You couldn"t even build a condo for that. 

Yes many Canton Condos are bargains.  All the Canton condominiums above have sold in the last six months. In the last year 239 condos have sold in Canton Twp, MI.  Right now there are 154 condos for sale.  They have been on the market an average of 181 days.

 Search Canton MI foreclosures and Canton real estate MI

                                    Russ Ravary your Canton real estate agent

_______________________________________________________

My thought of the day:

When you find peace within yourself, you become the kind of person who can live at peace with others."