New market reports...

The new country market reports for the 3rd Quarter are now available on my Web site http://www.themilfordteam.com/. These are the reports that I refer to as the "Market Velocity" reports, since they give one some sense of the speed with which a new listing will sell. The reports show what sold during the last quarter, sorted into $100,000 price bands; what inventory was on the market at the start of the new quarter; and, based upon calculating the rate at which homes in each price band were selling, how long it might take for the beginning inventory to sell off. You can get a pretty good idea from that how long it might take to sell if you placed a house on the market within a specific price band.

As expected, the statistics show that the inventory has fallen a bit; however the time to sell has stretched out. This report doesn't say much about house values, but I can report that they continue to fall. we are still seeing about a 1% per month drop in prices. That has slowed some in some areas, but has not yet completely stopped or turned around and started back up. As I reported a few days back, the latest 5-county market report seemed to show that the market had bottomed out in Oakland County, or at least that it is bumping along the bottom. It's kind of a shame that we have to grasp at even the hint of the bottom of this market, but that's where we are right now.

There are still very alarming projections of an increase in foreclosures yet to come later this year and early next year. These are based upon the huge number of ARM loans that are due to reset in that time frame. One can only hope that some of the Federal bailout programs start to take hold and we don't see that big influx of foreclosed homes into an already bloated inventory. If you are facing that prospect, remember to visit my new Web site that is aimed at providing information about the Short Sale option - http://www.mishortsales.net/ .

Remember too that, as bad as things sound, we are still selling houses every day. Right now foreclosures, as a percentage of homes sold, is down below 50% in the patch that I track. So, regular sales are happening every day. I can help make that happen for you, too. Call me if you want to or need to sell. And for sure call me if you are in trouble on your mortgage, I help you avoid a foreclosure.