by Andy Piper on August 15, 2010
Article in the Morning Sun (Central Michigan) recaps sales results for several Michigan real estate markets. Overall, a strong first half with prices and volume increasing in 38 of 40 markets. However, results are still well below record levels set during the market peak around 2005.
Michigan’s priciest homes during the first six months were, once again, in northwestern Michigan’s Emmet County, where the average price of a home climbed nearly 14 percent to $193,641. The Ann Arbor real estate market was in second place, at $181,427, virtually the same as last year.
Statewide, the pace of sales is up 3 percent over 2009, according to the trade group, and the average sale price of $102,006 is more than 11 percent higher than the comparable period a year ago.
First-half prices increased over last year in 38 of the 40 regional markets reported by the trade group, with slight declines reported only in Branch and Lenawee counties. Both declines were less than 2 percent. Morning Sun
by Andy Piper on July 29, 2010
About 22% of homeowners who refinanced their first-lien mortgage during the last quarter put in cash to lower principal, tying a record for the third highest “cash-in” share since Freddie Mac started keeping records in 1985.
Many borrowers today must pay down principal to lower their loan-to-value ratio in order to qualify to refinance their mortgage, either because their Ann Arbor homes have declined in value, or because of tighter lending standards. A growing number are willing to do it because mortgage rates are at 50-year lows, at the same time that relatively safe, cash investments such as certificates of deposit, savings accounts and money-market funds are paying very low interest, “which makes the choice of paying down mortgage principal very attractive to borrowers with extra cash reserves,” says Frank Nothaft, Freddie Mac’s vice president and chief economist.
Read complete article here
by Andy Piper on April 24, 2010
Architecture master students from University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning program will display their thesis projects at the Liberty Lofts Warehouse, 305. W. Liberty, in Ann Arbor, April 28-May 2, 2010. The thesis’ students reviews and the exhibit are free and open to the U-M community and guests.
Exhibit: April 30 – May 1, 10 AM – 5 PM and May 2, 12 PM – 7 PM
More information
by Andy Piper on April 7, 2010
When asked if financial distress makes stopping payments on an underwater mortgage acceptable, 15 percent of respondents said yes in Fannie Mae’s National Housing Survey, a remarkable level of public acceptance for homeowners who walk away from their mortgages in light of the growing number of defaults in Fannie Mae’s portfolio.
Both delinquent mortgage borrowers and those current on their mortgage payments are more than twice as likely to have seriously considered stopping their payments if they know someone who has already defaulted, according to the survey released today. More at Real Estate Economy Watch
Ann Arbor Real Estate with Piperpartners.com
by Andy Piper on January 16, 2010
First time homebuyer and move up buyer tax credit form 5405 now available from the IRS.
the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) recently released the new Form 5405. First-time homebuyers and long-time homeowners need this to claim the homebuyer tax credits. Although changes were
made on November 6 which expanded the program, people couldn’t file until the new form came out.
One of the newer changes may allow eligible long-time homeowners (those in a second or third home) to qualify for a credit, too. As noted above, after changes on November 6 filing was put on hold for awhile but…
Taxpayers can Now Start Filing for Their First-Time and Long-Time Home Buying Credits
Associated Content
by Andy Piper on January 7, 2010
High stakes downtown Ann Arbor development site to get $50,000 to hire consultant to help evaluate proposals.
Local real estate developer Peter Allen encouraged Ann Arbor leaders to consider a broad vision for the future of the entire area surrounding the so-called Library Lot as they decide what will be built on the downtown site.
Allen addressed the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority’s governing board today before it approved providing $50,000 to the city to hire a consultant to help evaluate proposals for the lot, a 1.2-acre site on South Fifth Avenue.
“To me, the issues that you are going to discuss about hiring this consultant relate to a timeless, 100-year decision about what is it that makes a great, great city,” Allen said, suggesting the site has the potential to be “the place for Ann Arbor that you always want to take your guests – you always want to go to and walk through, that you want to say is an emblem about what is really special about Ann Arbor.”
Ann Arbor.com
by Andy Piper on January 3, 2010
Proposals to put a park or town square atop the underground parking structure that is being built at the so-called Library Lot in downtown Ann Arbor have been eliminated from contention by an advisory committee.
City officials also are considering hiring a consultant to evaluate the pros and cons of the remaining four proposals..
Taken out of the running by the committee was an idea for a community commons – or urban park – by a grassroots group of citizens called the Ann Arbor Committee for the Commons.
Also eliminated was a popular proposal by Dahlmann Apartments Ltd. for a town square project with an outdoor ice skating rink and pavilion – a concept that received 46 percent of the vote from 1,483 AnnArbor.com readers who participated in a non-scientific online poll to see which of the six proposals they liked most.
- Read More – AnnArbor.com
by Andy Piper on December 9, 2009
City of Ann Arbor featured as a “campus and Careers” Patchwork Community on PBS.org’s Patchwork Nation.
Just a short drive from Detroit, Downtown Ann Arbor- home of the University of Michigan- attracts thousands of Ph.D.s, graduate students, top researchers and ambitious young people year after year.See Ray Saurez report on Ann Arbor Michigan’s vibrant economic engine.
Form PBS Newshour website
by Andy Piper on December 6, 2009
by Andy Piper on December 4, 2009
Prospective Homebuyer Information
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