Presented here is a discussion/breakdown of the housing market in Washtenaw County, home to Ann Arbor, Michigan and the University of Michigan.  Covered in this presentation are numbers simply about homes/single family residences.

Ok, so this is my first attempt at narrating a housing stats package from Big House Data.  Please be kind!

Any feedback is greatly appreciated and don’t forget to let us know what accounted for the giant spike in listings mentioned in the presentation!

Looking for homes in the Ann Arbor area?

Drop us an email to learn more about our Listing Syndication System at info-at-team366.com. Learn how we quantify your home’s visibility on over 1,000 websites.

Todd Waller
Team366 | Real Estate One
734.564.7465
Search for Homes in Ann Arbor
Visit Team366.com

Are you searching for Ann Arbor Michigan Homes for Sale?

If you have visited the Team366 blog in the past, you will notice a few changes.  One of the biggest changes to the blog is our search page.  If you are looking for all the Ann Arbor Michigan homes for sale, check out our real estate search page.

Where do I start?

Buyers in the Ann Arbor real estate market should begin their home search in front of a lender.  The purpose of sitting with a lender before getting serious about purchasing a home is to get a great feel for what you can afford.  Your lender may show you how you can afford a $200,000 house when you thought you could afford $300,000.  The difference between those two price points while viewing homes is dramatic!  You don’t want to be disappointed that you can only afford a $200,000 home, when you’ve been seeing nothing but homes in the $300,000 price point.

Looking at Homes, What Should I Keep in Mind?

As you are looking for that perfect Ann Arbor home, you should keep track of how the homes stack up against your two lists:  your “Gotta Have It” list and your “It Would Be Nice” list.

Your “Gotta Have It” list is a list of all those things you need in a home.  Maybe you need 4 bedrooms, 2 and a half baths with at least 2500 sf.  These are the non-negotiables in your next home.  These are the items you need to have in order for the purchase to make logical sense.

Your “It Would Be Nice” list is the list of the amenities in your next home that you would like to have.  Maybe you can live with a regular bath tub, but would love to have a jetted tub.  Instead of vinyl, you would prefer tile.

The object of having these two lists front and center in your mind as you are reviewing homes for purchase is to ensure that all you need in a home and most of what you want is in your next home.  Optimally, you want 100% of all the things you need in a home and at least 50% of all the things you want.  With the number of Ann Arbor Michigan homes for sale, it will be a quick order of business to find the home that meets all the “Gotta Have It” items and many of the “It Would Be Nice” items.

If you are looking for a great place to begin your search for Ann Arbor area homes, check out this search site.

Did you know that if you bought/buy your first home from April 9th, 2008 through June 30th, 2009, you are eligible for a $7,500 tax credit.  You can use this tax credit for fixing up your home or otherwise improving your domicile.

For more information on this tax credit, from its use to the application process, check out the Federal Housing Tax Credit site.

Want to buy a house between now and June 30th?  Drop me a note at todd-at-team366[dot]com.  I will be happy to set up an automated search for Ann Arbor area homes that meets your criteria.  Just need your email address and criteria you are looking for in a house.  If you are a first time homebuyer, you might be eligible for this tax credit!

July 2008 has come and gone! The Fourth of July, hot dogs, hamburgers, hot days and cool evenings are all in full effect this summer.  August is here and the beginning of has shown us some regionally cooler weather than many of us have come to expect.  The good news, though, is that the Ann Arbor area real estate market appears to be heating up a bit.

From the Big House Data monthly summary:

The overall housing market in Washtenaw County is showing positive signs. While sales prices and list prices continue to fall county wide, the number of closings year to date are up and new listings are down. Also a good sign, the year to date monthly volume average is up!

While some of the good signs are not strong, they are positives!

Buyers in today’s Washtenaw County real estate market are seeing housing affordability levels not seen since the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. Coupled with decent mortgage rates and houses in Washtenaw are very attractive.

Sellers need to continue to price as though the market is still descending. With average sales prices down for every month this year, pricing below the most recent sale will help ensure the sale of your property. And don’t forget to make the property shine and cause buyers to pause.

So, decent news from the numbers.  Let’s continue to watch the Ann Arbor area real estate market stats move sideways or even improve in the next 6 to 12 months.

Average List Price – July 2008

The overall average list price in July was $223,329, down nearly 11% compared to July 2007. For the first seven months of 2008, the average list price is down nearly 7%.

Average Sales Price – July 2008

July saw an average sales price of $219,420, down 4.25% from July 2007. Compared to the first seven months of 2007, the average sales price is down nearly 10.5%.

Number of Listings v Closings – July 2008

With 843 new listings in July 2008, that represents a nearly 32% drop over July 2007. For the year, listings are down nearly 31% 359 closings in July 2008, down over 14.5% compared to July 2007. Year to date, compared to the same timeframe in 2007, the number of closings is up nearly 10%

There you have it!  Some signs of improvement in the Ann Arbor real estate market.  Slow and steady wins the race and these could be the first few slow and steady steps on the long road to recovery.

Need to purchase a home?  Start your search with Team366. 

Need to sell a property?  Check out how Team366 goes above and beyond in marketing your home for sale.

Props, kudos and all around cheers for RealEstateZebra.com .

While perhaps redundant and irreverent, this is a point that many of the sellers in 2007 learned.  In fact, 5,657 sellers knew not to overprice their home, because they sold their’s in 2007.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOrKLs0QJkA]

So the lesson for 2008?

The lesson continues to be, “Don’t overprice your home.”  The convergence of price and quality in the mind of a buyer is where a home will sell!

Remember these three points:

1. You can’t easily change the location of your home;
2. You can control the quality/condition of your home;
3. You can control the price of your home.

Those three points, a great marketing program and your home will sell!  Even in this market.

Part two of Andy Kroll’s three part series on the economic and housing market impact of the arrival of Google and departure of Pfizer is live!  Andy was kind enough to send us a note to let us know when our names were in digital ink.  Here is the link to read Part Two.

Team366 cannot emphasize enough the importance of the proper pricing in this housing market.  Ssellers need to be able to grab the buyers by the collar with their property’s quality and value.

Let Team366 show you how we are able to give your property worldwide, 24/7 exposure and back up the exposure with statistics showing who is looking, from what locale they are looking and how often they are looking at your property.  Armed with this, our clients rest easy knowing that within 21 days, they can be assured of an impending sale.

Give us a call at 734.476.1343.

This month’s Washtenaw County Homes Report is out!  Directly from the Big House Data Executive Summary:

For the three years of data reflected on these charts, September 2007 is the lowest average sales price for the combined home and condo market in Washtenaw County.  The good news, and there are silver linings here, is that properties are selling, and that the twelve month moving average trend line for sales is flattening!  This indicates a momentum shift in the positive direction for closings compared to the prior twenty four months.

If you are a buyer in this market, you have never, and likely will never, see this kind of market again!  High inventory, prices readjusting to normalcy, a historically low cost of money and hungry Realtors®.  Buy NOW!

Ouch, lowest average sales price in 36 months!  Team366 stared at the numbers and realized that so far this year, 20.6% of the listings on the market have sold.  Compared to last year, when 30.1% sold across the same time frame, that represents a nearly 32% drop in the likelihood a listed home will sell.  So right now, an active home has a one in five chance of selling!

Now, of course, this assumes an average home, at an average price, with average marketing!  Team366, with the help of these stats, and our professional marketing system, is selling 65% of our listings this year.  Give us a call at 734.330.2392 to learn more.

For now, let’s see some charts!

Average List Price – Washtenaw County Housing

The average list price for housing listed in September was $237,517. For the three quarters of 2007, the average list price is down 3.5% compared to the first three quarters of 2006.

As you can see, the average list price has been diving (according to the 12 month moving average trendline) since March of 2007.  This is an encouraging trend to see as the market adjusted and continues to adjust, to the Pfizer withdrawal combined with the general readjustment of real estate values.  This means that sellers have learned that price is a factor in selling homes.

Average Sales Price – Washtenaw County Housing

Now there is a price drop!  Wow!  The average sales price for September 2007 was $194,938. Year to date, the average sales price is down nearly 6.25%.  Year to date, the average sales price is $224,566.

While this is an amazing number compared to the prior 36 months, when the average monthly volume is down only 8% and the number of closing are down only 2.5%, the market is not presenting itself as dead, by any stretch of the imagination.

Number of Listings v Number of Closings – Washtenaw County Housing

This chart shows that 2007 has been a banner year for listing homes, while the sales have remained relatively steady throughout the year so far.

This chart shows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, when most folks list their property.  If you need to sell your place, and are afraid of listing during the winter, look at this chart again and examine where your home will be able to gain the greatest exposure on the market with the least amount of listing competition.

There are some great reasons to list during the winter time, and fewer new listings hitting the market is one of them!

Technorati tags: Buyer Insights, Seller Insights, Market Statistics, Big House Data, Team366, Ann Arbor, Homes, For Sale, Marketing