Year end and year total market numbers for REO

From Dan Elsea, President of Real Estate One’s brokerage operations come these overall market stats for December along with our company numbers for the month and the entire year.

Following the market, our units were up nearly 10% (to 14,934) with volume down 18% (to $1,970,938,890) for the year. For Southeast Michigan, December ended like the rest of the year, a continued settling of home values with a significant increase in the number of homes pending. It is rather remarkable that the number of homes sold and leased have continued to grow (2008 over 2007) considering the economic uncertainty that hangs over the State. Granted that increase has come from the under $100,000 home value segment (the segments above $100,000 declined in terms of units in 2008); however those sales do create additional activity. Most are first time and investor sales that have a higher turnover rate as do leases, driving the move-up price range sales as home inventories shrink. Median home values took a significant drop in 2008, falling 38%, most of that is from the shift of buyers to those lower priced homes, as opposed to value declines. The Case/Shiller numbers are a better indicator of true home value changes at around -12%. (Ed note: The Case-Schiller Report is a monthly report on the real estate market that is released by Standard and Poors. The report is written by Robert Schiller and Karl Case of MacroMarkets LLC. Robert J. Shiller is a professor of economics at Yale and chief economist of MacroMarkets LLC)

Northwest Michigan moved in a different direction with the number of homes sales off by 20% while the average home price declined only 6%. As a positive sign For Sale inventories have begun to decline however it is logical that further price declines can be expected in northern markets as well.

Total Company Summary Dec-08 Full Year 08
# Buyers to Open Houses 573 35,614
# of Showing Appointments 8,222 211,860
# of Homes Sold/Leased 1,028 14,934
# Web Inquiries (Unique Visitors) 96,175 1,385,400

For Dan’s full report, visit my Web site – http://www.themilfordteam.com/ and look on the Real Estate Market Statistics page

So, basically we are selling more houses than ever, but most of them are houses that are under $200,000, with the majority under $100,000 in the metro area. That is certainly consistent with what I’m seeing out here in the Milford area market. Most sales – running about 70% lately – are foreclosed houses, with the majority under $200K and many under $100,000.


Another thing that I’ve noticed in the last few months in the township markets that I track is that a large number of houses are selling below their SEV values – that is they are selling for less than ½ of what the county assessor last said that they were worth. In many cases that’s because they have been trashed or otherwise severely damaged in ways that dump their value down significantly. Some have mold, some have been stripped or vandalized and most just showing the ravages of neglect and improper winterization (or lack of winterization) in their plumbing. What a shame. Many were really nice houses a few years back.