Market activity for the first three quarters of this year has been a bit of a rollercoaster. September sales and closings were down in most every metro area market mostly as a result of two factors, the mortgage crisis that cause many sales to be stopped or postponed and, locally, the UAW negotiations. Having reacted to both in August and September the market seems to be picking back up to the pace of spring and early summer, which is about an 8-9% drop in unit sales compared to 2006, net of leases. Including leases, the actual number of real estate transactions in 2007 will only be off 2-3% from 2006.
In the national news home sale rates are getting a lot of press as the numbers are beginning to show double digit drops and rising inventories (i.e. they are all beginning to look a lot like us). The national numbers do not affect us dramatically except if your clients are moving out of state, they can get some great deals. Those sellers on the fence to buy their retirement home will see no better time than now. The national market may also create an additional motivating factor for our sellers. There does loom the potential for a national recession (a mild one, but none the less a slowdown) as a result of the real estate fall out. Which means if your seller needs to sell, get it priced right now, since a national recession will have an effect on our housing market as well (although less than other markets).
Good news for our web marketing. The National Association of Realtors hired a firm, Comscore, to do national “Neilson” type ratings of web sites across the country. You will be pleased to know that RealEstateOne.com (to which all our sites are tied) was the 22nd most viewed broker site in the country. Considering Michigan has not been the economic center of the country in the past year, those numbers are pleasantly surprising.
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