June numbers posted

I've posted the sales numbers for the first 10 days in June on my Web site www.movetomilford.com

The June numbers show a much healthier market overall. Of special note the distressed sales were down as a percentage of sales in every market, even Commerce and West Bloomfield. Distressed sales in those markets are still high, but now less than 50% of total sales.

Median and Average sales prices are creeping up too, due to increased sales of higher priced homes.

Inventory is still very low in all of the markets and is running less than 4 months of available inventory at the current sales rates.

We are still faced with the issue of low appraisals in the market, as appraisers and assessors alike seem to be trailing the upswing by several months. No one complains when the assessors get it wrong on the low-side and your taxes go down; however, you can hear the howls when the appraisers come back and tell you that the house isn't worth what someone has just offered to pay for it.

There are all sorts of reasons that appraisers will give you for their low valuations on homes, but some of it has to be in the very conservative nature of lenders right now who are more likely to question a higher appraisal than a low one. Appraisers, no matter how independent, work to satisfy what they think the people who are paying for the service want to hear.