March Statistics

The March statistics are out and Mid-Michigan officially continues to be a buyers market. Our sales for last month were off slightly from the year before. Realtors in the area closed 354 transactions versus 394 for the same time period last year. Sales prices continue to take front and center, however, dropping to an average of $91,415 in March of 2008 as compared to $118,169 for March of 2007 (a drop of 23%)

The good news is that foreclosures were down dramatically in March. According to local news WLNS, foreclosure filings in Clinton County were down 55% from last year, Ingham was down 42%, and Eaton down 31%. Keep your fingers crossed that foreclosures continue to decline.

Lansing Market Update: February Stats

Anyone that knows me will tell you I love my statistics. I track everything from my google analytics website traffic to how many of you are reading this blog right now. I think that statistics can be a very helpful tool. Because of that I am going to start doing a market update every month so that you can get the same statistics that Realtors in Lansing are getting. So how was February for real estate in Lansing? Well from a sales standpoint it was great. The Greater Lansing Association of Realtors as a whole closed 327 transactions, up from 272 last year (a 20% increase!) However, the average sales price continues to decline. We fell from an average price of $106,855 in Feb. or 2008 to just $93,501 in 2009 (a 12.5% decrease) This is actually an increase over January’s average sales price of just $88,000.  What can we deduce from all these numbers?  Well, we can say for sure that properties are still selling if you get them to the right price.  And for those you that are still clinging close to an appraisal you had done in the Fall of 2006, it is time to face the reality that prices are just not where they used to be.  For a full list of our statistics check out this link.