Looking at the local real estate market...

Our local Multi-List Service (MLS) - RealComp II - released it's stats report for May this morning and reported a record month. Sales were up 1.2% year-over-year to 6,399 units sold during May 2013. That includes all 15 of the markets that RealComp services, which is pretty much the whole metro Detroit and environs area. Not surprisingly the number of listings coming onto the market during May was down 19.5% in the overall area. Oakland County was down 16.7% and Livingston County down 18.5%.

Median sale prices in the MLS entire area where up 35.8% year-over-year.  Oakland County saw an increase of 19.7% to $165,000 and Livingston County seeing a 21.4% increase to $181,450 in May 2013 as compared to last year. The Average Days-On-Market (DOM) for the whole are was 69, with Oakland clocking in at 61 and Livingston at 85 days.

Of all of the sales in May, 7.9% were short sales and 42% were identified as cash sales. Foreclosures in May dropped to 1,784 ( or 28% of all sales) which was a drop of 27.7% from last year, when 2,468 foreclosures were reported. Click here to see the summary report for May from RealComp II.

What does this mean to you? It depends upon whether you are trying to buy or sell. If you have been waiting to sell, now is the time to act. Low inventory levels are driving the current price run-up, but that is not expected to last as more and more people are now back above water on their mortgages. If you continue to wait, you might miss this "sellers' market." Call me today for a free market analysis of your home to see if now is the right time for you to sell.

If you're a buyer it means frustration. There's less to look at and things are selling so fast that you may not even get a chance to bid, unless you are ready when you see the place. Be ready to act. Have your mortgage  pre-approval all done and don't even think about making a low-ball. Sellers are in no mood to play that game and will just ignore your offer and move on to look at serious offers. Let me take some of the frustration out of the search for you by signing you up for our "First to Know" alert program that will send you and email just as soon as a new listing hits the market. You'll be "in the know."