New feature - follow by email

I've received many requests for an easy way to follow this blog, so I added a "Follow by Email" gadget at the top of the blog. As I understand it, once you click on that you'll be asked for an email address and you should start receiving emails whenever I post a new blog entry. I hope this helps those who want to follow along my life's journey in real estate (and other things in my life).

Now, I'll have to come up with some more intersting topics to write about. Today I also received notice of a new Blog by the Capital Title folks which I've signed up for at -  http://www.titleexperts.blogspot.com/

This should be a good source of information about real estate title issues and the changing face of real estate from that perspective.

By the way, I'll be posting the sales statistics for October for the 9 township markets that I track on my MoveToMilford Web site tomorrow. I actual already have it updated through Sunday, but with today being the last day of the month, I expect that there will be a flurry of closing activity today, which I'll add in tomorrow.

Here's a little bit that I wrote for my paper-based newsletter -

We appear to be experiencing what someone has dubbed to be a “Catfish Recovery” in the local housing market. We are bouncing along the bottom—up one week and down the next—however the general trend is in the upward direction.

A recent market study of the Village of Milford market for starter homes, done by local appraiser Glen Betts of 1st In Michigan Real Estate Appraisal Services—http://www.1stinmichigan.com/ looked at the sales data for starter homes in the Village over the last five years. What Glen’s research showed is a market that has had almost monthly ups and downs, but which has been on an upward trajectory since January of 2009.

You may recall that January of 2009 is the month that the First Time Buyer Tax Credit expired. It is also the month in which the bottom dropped out of the market for the last time in this recession. It was the low point, at least for the Village of Milford starter home market. Since that time the market has bumped up and down but always following a fairly traditional overall appreciation curve.

Thanks to Glen for his research on this and his study report. You can see his study at my http://www.movetomilford.com/ web site, under the Local Real Estate Statistics choice. His study confirms what we’ve been seeing in the market—ups and downs in the local townships markets, but generally trending in an upward direction. It may be an ugly recovery, but it’s a start back.