Showing posts with label Metro Detroit Home Prices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Metro Detroit Home Prices. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Update: Van Elslander Mansion Sells

Aerial view of the 3.75-acre former Art Van Elslander estate in Grosse Pointe Shores.


Did I ever get around to mentioning this? Art Van Elselander's spectacular Michigan mansion, which had been on the market for some time, finally sold. At an auction. At a bargain price.

Originally priced at over $15.9 million, easily the most expensive listing in Michigan at the time, it ended up selling for a relatively bargain price of $3.75 million, which is like going to an Art Van store for a new sofa and finding one for $100 in the Clearance Center in the back.

That price is amazingly low. Mr. and Mrs. James Anderson got themselves quite a deal. Hey, if I'd have known it would go for that cheap, I would have put in a bid in the auction. Then again, I would have needed to come up with the money to buy it, so maybe not.


Link:
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2014/12/19/art-van-elslander-mansion-sold/20672827/

Sunday, July 12, 2015

Detroit Housing Prices

dfp detroit real est (10)

The Detroit Free Press took a thorough look today at Detroit home prices. Yes, they are going up. Yes, some of them were so low it did not take much to get them to go up. Yes, certain neighborhoods held up well during the drop in 2008-09 and are still holding up well. Yes, out of state investors need to be careful. In short, nothing that we did not already know, but they have lots of pictures.

Readers of this blog have been keeping track of prices in Detroit all along. That's particularly because of our philosophy that Detroit is a great place to buy a house if you can buy the right one in the right neighborhood. That's why you need to know the neighborhood. Sometimes crossing the street can make a difference in prices.

Investors from out of state are vulnerable to being taken advantage of. The news story includes one such person, who bought a house and used a property management company, but did not make any money. As she observed, it is hard to make money on Detroit from afar.


Link: http://www.freep.com/story/money/real-estate/2015/07/11/detroit-home-values-rising/29169949/

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Selling Your Homes? Don't Make It Personal

Home_Sales_OHAS201

Selling your home requires you to think about the potential buyers who will be coming and looking. It requires you to look at the market and ensure that your home is positioned to attract potential buyers. This is a two stage process: getting them to look, then getting them to offer.

In order for the potential buyer to even look, the house has to look good from the outside. It has to be priced competitively. You need them to pick your home out to look at among a slew of similar homes on the market, then have the view from the street good enough that they won't just drive away.

Buyers usually look at multiple homes before zeroing in on one to offer on, and you do not want yours to be the runt of the litter. If your curb appeal gets them in, then keep them in with a clean house that doesn't look like it needs any work. Sure, everybody will want to change colors in a room or put up their own decor, but you want to give them a feeling that this would be ok until they get around to making those changes.

Don't make the inside (or outside) too personal to you. If you have an extra bedroom and use it for a home office, stage it as a bedroom when you are putting it up for sale. Generally people are looking at houses with the number of bedrooms they want and most people don't put a priority on a discrete home office. If you used a fuschia and coral paint scheme that you loved because it reminds you of Cancun, repaint it in beige when the house is being sold, Grandma's old brown stove that doesn't fit in the white kitchen? Get a white one, even if you rent it.

For more tips, we'd refer you to a recent article in the Freep.

Good luck!

Link: http://www.freep.com/story/life/2015/07/04/selling-tips-homeowners/29617327/

Sunday, March 29, 2015

Property Values on Upswing

No surprise to people who live Downriver, but we have confirmation that property values are going up just about everywhere in our little neck of the woods. Only River Rouge, Ecorse, and Lincoln Park are not invited to the party. You can see the News-Herald reporting on it here.

The article points out that rising property values do not proportionately increase property taxes, which is good for homeowners but bad for local government. This flaw in Michigan's local government finance system has been discussed in depth in this blog before, and it needs to be addressed before every city Downriver is under a state controller. While I don't want to pay taxes either, cities and townships will continue to have budget problems even with rising values.

Link: http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2015/03/29/news/doc55159d97e4f17107086668.txt?viewmode=fullstory




Thursday, October 30, 2014

Hottest Real Estate Markets, Overpriced in California



Fortune magazine has a list of 13 of the hottest real estate markets.  In this instance, "hottest" includes overvalued.  Most of the list are places in California (are you reading this, Neil Kramer?), but the number one market where prices have outpaced reality is in Texas.

Michigan did not have any places on this list, which is not really a shock.  Truth be told, this is a list of overbought areas where values are likely to drop or at least stagnate.  It is not the kind of list you really want to be on.  One of the things I like about this area is its affordability.

So let's be glad this is one list of top places that Michigan is not on.

Link:
http://fortune.com/2014/10/23/hottest-real-estate-us/?utm_content=buffer3eb88&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Metro Detroit Home Prices Soar, Especially in Hot Spots

DFP 1010_real_estate_hot_spot.jpg
This nice couple from South Lyon are in the middle of a real estate
market upswing more dramatic than we are seeing Downriver.
It's no secret that Metro Detroit real estate prices are going up, and have been for a while.  After the big crash in the second half of the last decade, up is about all they could go.

What is not so apparent, but should be known, is that not all areas are going up uniformly.  Some areas lead the pack and some areas lag.  In our area, we have no leaders, at least according to the article.  We do have a laggard, Romulus.

Statistics don't lie.  I am not shocked that the Grosse Pointes are once again in vogue.  What I don't understand is why more people do not realize the great neighborhoods and cities Downriver and give them a little love.  Our area gets an unfair rap, in my humble opinion.

Oh well, read the story in the Free Press anyways.

Link:
http://www.freep.com/story/money/real-estate/home-sales/2014/10/12/real-estate-hot-spots-michigan-housing/17107651/


Thursday, October 2, 2014

Art Van's Spectacular Estate On Auction Block

The Lake St. Clair-facing rear view and back yard of the Art Van Elslander estate in Grosse Pointe Shores.  The estate of the Art Van Furniture founder and his wife, Mary Ann, is up for auction. It was initially listed for $15.9 million on the Grand Estates Auction Co. website.

The founder of Art Van furniture is selling his house.  Everything must go!  You get the bargains!  Buy now!  Free financing for five years!

We're kidding about the financing, but the exclusive abode of Art Van Elslander has been for sale for over a year at $15.9 million without a sale, so now it is going up for auction, instead.  Considering that this is the highest listing price ever in Michigan, it was going to take a certain type of buyer (paging Dan Gilbert!) at the right time to make a sale on this.  So to the auction house it goes.  The Detroit News has the info, along with a ton of great pictures from the auction listing.  Put your bids in on October 28th.

We wrote about this place before, when it first went up for sale last year.  Actually, we had a wittier headline when we wrote about it before, too.  At the time, we called it "the best place in Michigan to live."  It is spectacular.  A lot more pictures after the jump:

The Art Van Elslander estate in Grosse Pointe Shores.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Post Civil War Farmhouse in Northville

This oldest part is next to the street and has its own pillared front porch.

This house, 134 years old, is located in a great location five blocks from downtown Northville.  As the Detroit Free Press observes, that means a lot of great events you can walk to.  Since we did not get a Featured Listing Friday post up recently and this is for sale, after all, we have decided to have Featured Listing Friday on Sunday, instead, this week.

Fortunately, the Free Press has A LOT of pictures, so we are able to give you a good flavor for how the place looks.


The music room with wood burning fireplace.

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Detroit Area Still Affordable


You have seen the rise in home prices, but metro Detroit is still one great place to afford your own home.  Granted, Cleveland, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati might be a shade below, but you can afford an average home in Detroit if you make a shade of $30,000 a year, which is pretty good.  The Freep has the scoop:

Link:
http://www.freep.com/article/20140604/BUSINESS06/306040081/homebuying-home-affordability-detroit

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Housing Market Goes Boom



That's "boom" in a good way, as in booming.  Not boom as it was in 2007 when the market blew apart.

Yesterday  I posted a video that now was a good time to buy your first home.  Well, I did not promise it would be easy.

Metro Detroit home prices have gone up, houses are selling fast for near-full price, there are a lot of cash offers, and sellers are loving it.  Also loving it are builders, who are ramping up new construction to soak up the increased demand, particularly on the high end of the market.  All this according to the Free Press today.

Great for sellers, not so great for buyers, and good for owners who are doing neither.

Link:
http://www.freep.com/article/20140427/BUSINESS04/304270119/Metro-Detroit-home-buying-season-2014

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Metro Detroit Home Sales? Still Going Up


The Detroit Free Press is reporting that metro Detroit home sales for Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Livingston counties in December averaged $120,800, an increase of 40% over the previous December.  The actual number of sales remained fairly constant.  Those statistics come from RealComp.

Still not a good investment.
Anecdotally, I can confirm that it is hard to find the idiot-proof bargains that once were prevalent across the MLS landscape.  Sort of like the Buffalo, they once were all over the place and now are hard to find.

Days on market, an important measure, dropped significantly.  It is also worth noting that Wayne County was up 60% while the other counties were all around 20% or so.

Why the huge increase in Wayne County?  Perhaps a realtor who reads this can help us understand by leaving a comment.  My guess is that Detroit no longer has as many houses that are basically being given away, although an increase across the board still seems to be there.

These numbers are good news for the local market and continue the trend of local home prices recovering to their 2005-06 levels.  Another year like 2013 and we will be at all-time highs.

Link:
http://www.freep.com/article/20140113/BUSINESS04/301130082/


Sunday, January 19, 2014

Million Dollar Home Sales Soar


The number of homes selling for more than (cue Dr. Evil voice) one million dollars shot up in 2013 in the metro Detroit area.  Tri-county, there were 210 such sales, a new record.

Bad news for those looking to score a discount on their next mansion, but good news for the local economy.  These homes are being bought by executives moving into the state or moving up the ladder.

Link:
http://www.freep.com/article/20140119/BUSINESS04/301190058/michigan-real-estate-homes


Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Latest News on Metro Detroit Home Prices Still Good News

Yes, home prices in metro Detroit are still going up, and going up faster than the national average.  Of course, they are still well below national averages and still 25% below peak.  Still, this continues the positive trends.

Incidentally, the article from the Freep notes a shortage of available inventory locally as part of the reason for the higher prices.  There certainly is a shortage of choices out there these days.

http://www.freep.com/article/20131231/BUSINESS04/312310077/Case-Shiller-index-metro-Detroit-October-2013-numbers