Second in a series
Julie Dykstra, a recently divorced mother of two, was ecstatic to get a deal on her new house in Grand Rapids since she lost big on the sale of her marital home.
Dykstra, an attorney for Meijer, traded down from a 3,500-square-foot, five-bedroom home in the Grand Rapids area. She found a 1,914-square-foot house with four bedrooms and 2 1/2 bathrooms built late last year. She paid $219,900 for the house in December. It was first listed at $224,900.
She just sold her larger home for $250,000, which she paid $390,000 for in 2005.
“I really took a hit on that, but this one I got for a really good price so I was happy.”
The new house features a four-season room and finished recreation room in the basement. And the new subdivision has attracted many families with young children for Daniel, 8, and Katie, 5, to play with. It’s also in the Forest Hills school district and near the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, where her daughter loves to visit.
It’s a buyers’ market for house hunters in the Grand Rapids area, yet there are exceptions as the most desirable properties are attracting multiple bids. Sales were down in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo last year, but both areas experienced more than 6% increases in average home sale prices in 2010.
While the region has suffered job losses, like those that resulted from the closure of the General Motors Wyoming Stamping plant in 2009, Grand Rapids has also had job gains. A $1-billion investment over the past 15 years in the health care and bio-science fields in a downtown area called the Medical Mile has created 14,500 jobs and helped diversify the economy from its manufacturing base.
Major employers recruiting in the area include Spectrum Health, Amway, Perrigo and Wolverine World Wide.
Meanwhile, metro Detroit has lost thousands of manufacturing jobs over the past several years and has struggled to replace them.
Pat Vredevoogd Combs, vice president of Coldwell Banker AJS-Schmidt in Grand Rapids, said buyers in that area are being more aggressive.
“The last two houses we put on the market sold in two weeks,” she said.
Ethan Dozeman, associate broker for Realty Executives Platinum in Grand Rapids, said there is a lot more potential for west Michigan real estate this year. The supply of houses for sale in the greater Grand Rapids area is down 27% from last year, Dozeman said.
Peter and Ariel Juberg got a fantastic deal on their new home. The Jubergs’ 3,586-square-foot house with four bedrooms and four bathrooms was on the market for less than six months, said their Realtor, Michael Yablonsky with Re/Max SunQuest in Grand Rapids. “It’s one of the nicest properties I’ve ever sold,” he said.
They purchased the house once listed for $649,900 for $485,000 in March. The previous owner had lost his job and then found a new one out of the area and needed to do a short sale.
“We weren’t trying to capitalize on the best deal. We just got married, want to have kids, like this area and we really like the house,” said Peter Juberg, 33, a software consultant. “We just bought our dream house.”
It has a large kitchen with a Sub-Zero refrigerator, Wolf range and warming drawer plus a wine cooler and an eating area that overlooks the wooded backyard. The living room has cathedral ceilings and a stone fireplace plus a wall of windows with views of the pastoral backyard.
“It’s elegant, but also cozy and livable,” said Ariel Juberg, 31, a psychologist.
Billy Hirt, 38, a property maintenance supervisor and father of four, overcame bad credit to land a 2,176-square-foot house in Jenison for $133,000 in May. Hirt and his wife, Lorraine, 29, were growing out of a 980-square-foot rental house last year and started planning for their own home.
“We started working on my credit last July. I wanted to have a pre-approval letter in my hand so that when we got to the closing table, everything would work,” Hirt said.
In their price range, Hirt said they were finding primarily foreclosures that needed a lot of work to be livable. So the Jenison home stood out. It has four bedrooms and was in good condition. Now, the two oldest children, Lexi, 10, and Nathan, 7, have their own bedrooms. Brian, 5, shares with Ian, 5 months.
The home, built in 1974, has a large yard and garden area, a large kitchen with custom birch cabinets and a solarium off the kitchen. The day after they moved in, a package arrived from the previous owners with all the keys and garage door opener, information about the house and what was planted in the garden.
Grand Rapids real estate agent Elizabeth Montes and her husband Rich, 40, are working on their seventh house rehab. They got a 1,770-square-foot Colonial for $25,000 in Grand Rapids in February.
The 1925 house needed extensive work including floors, new drywall, new bathrooms, new kitchen and siding. They plan to put it on the market this weekend for $119,900.