Friday, August 12, 2011

A Good Market in Northern Michigan

A big part of our job for customers is to educate them on the true status of our market in Northern Michigan. Conditions can vary greatly from one area or body of water to the next, but overall, we're seeing a much better market than other areas of The State. The key to being able to purchase the right property in Northern Michigan is to truly understand what the real values are based on sold comparables. Too often buyers are relying on stories in the media to gauge what they'll be able to get within a certain budget. The market doesn't care what the media says. It will always be driven by what a given buyer will pay for a given property. So often we work with buyers who continually miss out on the best properties because they are convinced they're going to get an incredible deal. At the same time other buyers who are basing their strategy on the actual market values are currently enjoying the cottage that was passed by in the name of "getting a steal". Here are the year to year numbers in The Paul Bunyan Board of Real Estate which covers primarily Roscommon and Wexford Counties as an example.

July 2010
107 homes sold
Average Sales Price $88,071
Median Sold Price $55,000
Days on Market 154

July 2011
133 homes sold
Average Sales Price $93,425
Median Sold Price $77,000
Days on Market 173

These numbers reflect what we saw in most of the breakdowns we did for the bodies of water we service. There was definitely a price drop that occurred in most markets from 2006 to 2009, but we saw a definite leveling off of prices in 2010 or even a slight uptick. Good luck in your search and please contact us at your convenience if you'd like to receive more information about the current market conditions.

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