Home Sales Jump in May

Numbers up 24% from year earlier



Wednesday, June 11, 2008


BY STEFANIE MURRAY The Ann Arbor News



In what could be a sign that the local housing market is finally on the mend, numbers released by an Ann Arbor Realtors group Tuesday show Washtenaw County home and condo sales jumped 24 percent in May from a year ago.





Prices, however, aren't doing so hot. Short sales, foreclosures and the aftermath of a previously bloated stock of inventory have pushed the average sale price of a home in Washtenaw County to 2000 levels.





Still, local real estate agents say the sales trend is positive. In some neighborhoods and especially at the lower end of the price scale, demand is outweighing supply and home sellers are receiving multiple offers, some above list price.





"It's a beautiful thing,'' said Alex Milshteyn, a residential sales manager at Edward Surovell Realtors in Ann Arbor. "You can show a house, you wait a day and it's gone. ... This evening, I have to sign three sales contracts, and that is how the whole past month has been.''





According to data from the Ann Arbor Area Board of Realtors:







Listings of homes and condos dropped 34.5 percent to 1,060 in May, while listings year to date, through the first five months of 2008, are off 24 percent.





Sales rose 24 percent to 371 homes and condos sold here in May, up from 299 in 2007. Year to date through May 31, a total of 1,293 homes and condos were sold, up from 1,228 at the same time last year.





Median home sale prices fell nearly 8 percent both in the month of May and year to date compared to last year to around $187,000. The average home sale price last month fell to $217,849 from $244,404. Year to date, the average home sale price sank to $216,882 from $239,028. The median sale price is the midpoint price of all homes sold in a specific period, meaning half of the houses sold for more than that price, and half sold for less. The average price, meanwhile, is an average of all the sale prices combined. The average number tends to more easily become skewed higher or lower when a bunch of expensive or inexpensive homes sell at once.





"The biggest thing I am hearing is that the inventory is almost depleted,'' said Sharon Snyder, president of Prudential Snyder and Co. Realtors in Ann Arbor. "My agents are busy and they just wish there was more product on the market. So we'd like to invite sellers to put their house on the market.''





Part of the reason for the drop in inventory levels has to do with Pfizer, and part has to do with price.





Last year at this time is when real estate agents say a load of homes owned by Pfizer employees came on the market. Last summer, Pfizer began to relocate and lay off employees in two-week waves as the drugmaker worked toward shutting down its Ann Arbor research site.





And as home prices have dropped, many potential sellers - especially those who bought in the past few years at higher prices - are waiting to sell until their home values appreciate.





Milshteyn said homes over $500,000 are slower to sell, while houses between $100,000 and $200,000 are moving quickly. Last month, he listed a house at $175,900 and got five offers. It sold over the list price.





Data by school district from the Ann Arbor Realtors board shows home sales rose in seven of eight districts, with Ypsilanti being the exception. Sale prices, however, dropped unilaterally. The biggest price drop came in Chelsea, where 15 homes were sold last month at an average price of $182,624. Last year, eight homes were sold in May for an average price of $294,499.





Many local real estate agents, including Dave Lutton, president of Charles Reinhart Co. Realtors, say they believe prices will begin appreciating once again in 2009.





"You can't have declining inventory and rising sales forever without a market turn coming,'' Lutton said. "There is this Michigan psyche that I can't sell my house because the market is so bad. But that is not true. We have a modest rising tide and I think it's going to continue.''