Detroit Real Estate

If you are thinking of relocating to West Bloomfield Michigan and buying a piece of West Bloomfield real estate, here is West Bloomfield demographics.  This will give you a glimpse of the city and what it's residents characteristics are. 

Yes as you know most of this West Bloomfield demographic information is from the 2000 census, but I don't think it has changed much.  There has not been a tremendous amount of change in the characteristics of the people that live in West Bloomfield Michigan.

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 Here is January's Median sale prices and the number of sales.  Now there is an interesting statistic.... the median sales price was up.  That is a good sign for the metro Detroit real estate market.

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When buying a home it may take a comparision between the homes.  In this example I will use a piece of Northville real estate and a West Bloomfield Township home.  When you start making your decision you of course write down what you like and what you don't like in a home.  But you should also do a financial breakdown.  By doing a financial comparision you may find some surprising differences.  

Where the comparisions may differ in prices are

• association fees - different complexs and subdivisions have different homeowners association fees.  So be sure to include that in your comparision.
• PMI - You may be choosing between two different price ranges.  On the higher priced house you may not have enough down payment to cover the 20% down.  You may be required to pay PMI because you don't have the 20% down.  This can be costly, so be sure to include this.  
• homeowners insurance  - different cities have different insurance rates.  Call a local insurance agent to get a quote.  It may make you change your mind.  You may not have realized how bad the crime was. 

Here is the info on Both houses.  I just estimated interest rates and the PMI.  The PMI may be higher.
 
                                              Northville                                       West Bloomfield
purchase price                         224,000                                           300,000 deposit                                     40,000                                             40,000

Association fees                           2220

taxes                                          6008                                               6742

taxes broken down monthly            500                                                  561

loan amount with 60k down       179,200                                           260,000    

payment at 5.5% 30 year              1017.48                                           1476.25 

monthly taxes                               500                                                  561

homeowners insurance                     70                                                   70

association fee                                                                                    185 PMI                                                                                                   100                                            ______________                       

                                        _______________                         ________________

Total                                         $1587.48                                  $2392.25     

Sure you may love both homes but the financial considerations should over ride your loves.  Sure you love that $300,000 West Bloomfield home.  If you can't afford the house payment THEN DON'T BUY THE HOUSE.

If it is a major stretch for your financials.  THEN DON'T BUY IT.  I want you to own the house five years from now.  I don't want you to be house poor.  I want you to enjoy your house.  I hope this break down gives you an idea of how to put together your comparision.

Have a great day!

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A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day."
- Albert Schweitzer

Here is why the bank took a lower cash offer over your offer on the West Bloomfield home. 

Cash deals are usually king.  The banks will usually take the cash offer over a mortgage offer. 

Banks prefer cash deals for these reasons:

• cash deals can close within a month.  They close quicker than mortgage deals that take 30 to 60 days..
• cash deals don't require an appraisal.  There is no chance that the deal will fall apart because the house didn't appraise.
• cash deals don't have a mortgage.  The deal can't fall thru because of mortgage problems such as debt ratios, and underwriting issues.
• cash deals don't depend on the buyer having a job.  If the buyer loses their job on a mortgage deal the deal is dead.  With cash deals it can still close.
• cash deals have already proved they have the money.  When you put in a cash offer you must get a proof of funds letter.  The letter comes from your bank and states that you have a certain amount of money in your account. 
• cash deals will be accepted when there are repairs that will need to be completed for a FHA loan, VA loan, or a conventional loan.  
• cash deals don't have an out. If you don't close with a cash deal you lose your money.  If you have a mortgage you can get your deposit back if the house doesn't appraise or if the mortgage doesn't go through.

Many times banks will take a lower cash offer over a mortgage offer.  It just depends how big of a difference there is.  I lost a deal on a piece of Livonia real estate on a cash offer.  The list price on the Livonia ranch was $61,000.  My clients bid $81,000.  The bank accepted an offer of $55,000.

That was a $26,000 difference.

I hope this explains why the bank took a lower cash offer on the West Bloomfield real estate you loved.  So if you can afford it,  bid cash. 

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Russ Ravary your Livonia real estate serving Oakland and Wayne County real estate

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. 

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