Allen Park MI Real Estate | Mortgage, Housing Market, Buy House, Home Buyers, Foreclosures, and More » Housing Market

What To Look For in the Housing Market

Tom Crowe — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:26:50 +0000

I have talked before about timing the market to achieve the best interest rate and what the challenges are in doing that. Mostly, not even the most knowledgeable buyer can do that. That said, here is what I would look for in terms of events that the market has stabilized and ready for an uptick in either housing prices or interest rates.

First of all, you must realize that all of this borrowing by the federal government is at sometime going to result in inflation and that in itself will increase mortgage interest rates. I remember the period in the seventies when inflation was high and you could get 19+% on a CD. This was also a time when interest on credit cards was tax deductible. Then came the 80′s and a change in presidents. Inflation was put on notice that it would no longer be tolerated and interest rates skyrocketed to a high of 21%. I personally saw mortgage rates climb to 18%. It was kind of like the inverse of what is happening now. Rates are historically low, but jobs a scarce. If I were going to play the market and try to maximize the interest rate on a home mortgage I would look at employment rates and claims for unemployment benefits.

Once we start recreating jobs mortgage interest rates will start to climb and the opportunity will be gone. For how long?…nobody knows. Track unemployment rates by state and see how employment rates are progressing in the State of Michigan. Another thing that will affect housing prices is the direct connection between average incomes and the price of housing. This will occur when the next census is taken and the resulting demographics for an area will show these financial statistics.

Allen Park Market Update

Tom Crowe — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 16:35:00 +0000

The first quarter of any real estate market is always slower than the traditional house selling time that starts with spring and traditionally ends with the start of school. Earlier this year I displayed average Allen Park sales prices and average days on the market that were pretty low. They were so low that my webmaster questioned these Allen Park sales as being a misprint. Now I can report a significant increase in the average Allen Park sales price and a lower average days on market. Look at the upper right hand corner of this page to see what I mean.

Since Allen Park is divided into three separate school districts a clearer pictures can be drawn by separating the list/sale numbers by school district:

Mel-Nap School District:
Active Listings:
53 Ave. List Price: $82,760 Ave. Days On Market: 141
Sold Private Owner:
2 Ave. Sale Price: $30,625 Ave. Days On Market: 114
Sold Foreclosure:
3 Ave. Sale Price $39,933 Ave. Days On Market: 104

Allen Park School District:
Active Listings:
11 Ave. List Price: $64,255 Ave. Days On Market: 73
Sold Private Owner:
6 Ave. Sale Price: $84,700 Ave. Days On Market: 61
Sold Foreclosure:
9 Ave Sale Price: $69,756 Ave. Days On Market: 65

Southgate School System:
Active Listings:
7 Ave List Price: $148,357 Ave. Days On Market 104
Sold Private Owner:
2 Ave. Sale Price: $162,450 Ave. Days On Market 93
Sold Foreclosure:
1 Ave. Sale Price: $240,000 Ave. Days On Market: 217

This information is taken from the RealComp Multi-Listing Service and is deemed to be correct, but not guaranteed.

March is Slow For The Real Estate Market

Tom Crowe — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 15:30:01 +0000

Even though we know, or at least think, foreclosures are bringing home values down, let’s just look at what privately owned home sales are selling for in this real estate market. Last month I reported that home sales were selling in the mid-60′s. This is a huge drop from the hay day of only 2 years ago when the average sales price in Allen Park was $147,000.

Looking at February homes sales I decided to look at only those that were privately owned instead of the entire Allen Park real estate market that would include bank, HUD and other 3rd party sales. You must remember that this is still March and technically winter which is the typical slow time for the real estate market and that the higher priced homes have not yet reached the market value.

Still, the average sales price in Allen Park for February was $72,323 and the average days on the real estate market was 85 days. This accounts for 12 sales during the month that were privately owned as compared to a total of 29 sales if you include the non-privately owned (bank owned, HUD and other 3rd party sales like estate sales).

Right now there are 129 homes for sale in the Allen Park real estate market at an average list price of $110,474. Since we sold 29 during the month of February, that means we have a 4 1/2 month inventory of houses heading into the traditional selling time. To me this is great news because I can remember when this months of inventory was 8 or 9 in Allen Park.

Check out this Budget Planner Spreadsheet to help you with your finances when it comes to the real estate market at this time.