Brian J. O’Connor / Detroit News Finance Editor
Home sales and prices throughout Metro Detroit declined in November as the inventory of homes listed for sale dropped, the number of foreclosures on the market slumped and the incentive of the $8,000 federal homebuyer’s tax credit faded away.
Overall, sales were down 15.5 percent in the four-county Metro Detroit area, to 3,876 in November, according to data released Monday by Realcomp II Ltd., the Realtor-owned multiple listing service for Southeast Michigan.
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The median sales price dropped by just more than 8 percent, meaning half of homes sold for more than $67,000 and half sold for less than that amount.
Some of the biggest numbers in the report came from Detroit, where sales plunged more than 41 percent from November 2009, down to 458 homes or condominiums from 777 sales, while the median price jumped 37.5 percent, to $11,000 last month, from $8,000 a year ago.
The city helped the median sales price of housing in Wayne County jump 14 percent to $39,900.
The other three counties experienced median sales price declines ranging from 3.5 percent in Livingston to 12.6 percent in Macomb.
The drop in sales wasn’t as bad as it sounds, noted Realcomp CEO Karen Kage, because of the record level of sales that took place last year.
Even with the sales decline, Kage added, November still recorded more sales than during any November between 2004 and 2008.
“It was such an amazing market during 2009 because of the programs that were available and the high level of inventory,” Kage said. “Now, inventories are down and sales are down, but we’re still better than we were five years ago.”
One reason inventories are down is that the number of foreclosed houses and condominiums for sale has diminished. Of the 35,875 homes or condos listed during November, 4,465 — or 12.4 percent — were foreclosures.
This development may have been prompted by some big banks that froze foreclosures in the wake of state and federal investigations into the practice of robo-signing — when bank employees don’t evaluate complex foreclosure documents to ensure their information is accurate.
It also may be influenced by the increase of foreclosure abatement programs or the fact that many foreclosures are being held off the market by lenders, either to avoid writing down the loss immediately or to avoid pushing home prices down further.
But more homes on the market could be what’s needed in the region, according to Kage.
“We could use some inventory now, our members are saying,” she said.
While sales during 2009 hit a banner level after being nearly nonexistent the year before, this year has started to show some leveling off, even if prices are still far off their peaks in 2005.
Analysts at CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, Calif., mortgage information company, released data Monday showing that 46.3 percent, or 124,429, of all homeowners with a mortgage in Metro Detroit owed more than their homes were worth during the July-September quarter. Another 5.2 percent, or 13,934, of homeowners were approaching that level of negative equity.
“Last year was the year of the foreclosure, and we saw all those lower-priced homes come on the market and saw them scooped up immediately,” Kage said.
“This year it seems to be settled down a bit, but it’s hard to say. I don’t think it’s ever going back to where it was for a long time. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
boconnor@detnews.com
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