The spring selling season...

The spring selling season has opened with a boom. I track the weekly sales of homes in a portion of the area that I normally cover - Milford, Highland, Commerce, White Lake and West Bloomfield. For the past four months sales have been pretty steady at about 23-26 per week, sometimes almost getting to 30. Last week sales shot up to 49 homes. That's good news. Further good news is that less than half of the sales were foreclosed houses. Foreclosures have been running between 40-50% for some time, but they are now down to the high 30's level.

Spring is historically a great time to be on the market, since people who have been pent up by winter seem eager to get out and look and to buy. People with families have a fairly short window of opportunity to buy a new home and get the family moved in before the new school season starts. They really need to have their home buy made before the end of July to ensure that they'll get in an get a bit settled before the new school year starts in their new neighborhood.

So, even though this isn't a frenzied market, like at a really great retail sale; it is a big improvement over what we've been experiencing. There are some great bargains out there in the housing market right now, especially the foreclosed houses that banks are dumping right now. The pressure from the foreclosure homes has also driven regular home sale prices down, so you can find a really nice, move-in ready home that is priced to compete with a foreclosed house that may need work.

My advice is not to sit on the sidelines waiting for the market to go down further. Get out and start looking while the selection is greatest. If you are a buyer with nothing that you have to sell, you will be treated like royalty. There will likely never be a better time to be a buyer than right now. Take advantage of it, while you can.